The Senshi Files: Silver Warden
by Irritus185
Summary: When Harry saved a young electromancer from some bloodthirsty monsters, he never imagined the trouble that would await him. Now between all the faeries, demons, vampires, and rogue sorcerers trying to kill him, he has to deal with mini-skirt wearing soldiers of justice. In the name of magic, Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden will punish you!
1. File 01: Lightning Strikes

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon nor Dresden Files. If I did, Moon would not be so useless, and fans would burn me at the stake for destroying Harry's awesomeness

**The Senshi Files: Silver Warden  
File 01: Lightning Strikes  
By Irritus185/Raithe**

I've always dreaded venturing into the Nevernever. It didn't matter how prepared I was, how necessary it was to enter, or how much time it saved; the idea of stepping into the equivalent of Wonderland on steroids always triggered the deep, primitive, reptilian section of my hindbrain. Whenever I opened a tear into that pseudo-dimension, I instinctively envied those preternatural creatures that literally had eyes in the back of their head. At least then I would have a better chance of seeing the slobbering beasts that enjoyed sneaking up on travelers.

Perhaps it was the creatures inhabiting the Nevernever that made my side of reality's big-and-uglies look like neutered bunnies in comparison. Perhaps it was because of the various sections of the Nevernever that reflected some of the darker aspects of human nature, like the demesnes created by ghosts. Perhaps it was the power structures full of beings that seemed so similar to us humans, and yet were so alien that trying to comprehend them would twist your brain into Gordian knots.

Personally, I think it was because the Nevernever treated the natural laws of our universe not so much as iron-clad rules that should always be followed, but rather as guidelines from a concerned friend. Such examples included sudden shifts between vastly-different ecosystems, gravity keeping a lax eye of matter, and creatures that upset the food chain in extremely disturbing ways.

And then there was the fact that even though it was in late March, and therefore in the firm hands of Spring and all things green, I was trekking my way through a blizzard-torn landscape that would make any decent Chicagonite weave such a blanket of obscenities that it would blot out the sun over much of downtown. It didn't help that I was within Winter Court territory, whose defacto leader Mab could freeze helium with nary a thought, and thus the area took extra delight in chilling anything or anyone foolish enough to trespass.

With icicles growing from my nose, I wished for nothing more than to be back at my basement dwelling, curled up in front of a roaring fire with my mammodog Mouse acting as a giant, furry blanket. However, I had a mission to complete, and come hell or high water, I would get it done.

Even if my precious package did not exactly share my sentiments.

"Papa, are we there yet?" asked a female voice that had that perfect mixture of annoyance and exasperation that only a young woman just inside her volatile teenage years could manifest.

I looked over my shoulder and grinned behind my crudely-stitched scarf. "What's wrong, kiddo? The morning air too brisk for you?"

Puffs of air erupted from her mouth as she sulked, and she crossed her arms. "I'd stick my tongue out at you, but I'm afraid it'd fall off."

I shrugged. "My victory then."

Her lips quirked up the smallest bit. "Meanie." She tucked a stray strand of brown hair back into her wool cap and brushed past me. "Just for that, no side dish for you when I make dinner." I chuckled at her act of rebellion and watched her forge ahead of me.

Makoto Kino, now Makoto Kino Dresden, had been my legally adopted daughter going on five years now. Ever since I'd 'saved' her from a bunch of marauding supernatural creatures, she'd been my pride and joy through the somewhat tumultuous days of my life. Though considering she'd been the one to fry the goblins attacking her like an overgrown bug-zapper, perhaps it would be better to say that she had been a major cause of some of my chaotic adventures.

Both raising a kid (and a young, foreign girl at that) and training a newbie magic user had put quite the strain on my lifestyle, if you could even call it that. There were many times that I had thrown my hands up at the trouble a burgeoning mini-me had brought, and many times that I'd sunk into despair and terror at the thought and occasional reality that someone could harm me through her. But through it all, I had kept her safe, she had grown on me, and I considered her my own, even if we weren't related by blood.

The trouble of adopting her was something else all together, and it was a victory that I consider more difficult and pyrrhic than I've had with any other villain I've faced. To owe a favor to that man, even if I know he would never overtly shove it in my face, was a blow to my pride I could never forgive. Still, I had to be grateful that it allowed me to watch over Makoto, no matter how much it tasted like ash in my mouth.

Disregarding that, I came to discover the same joy and anxiety that all fathers watching their daughters go through puberty felt.

With brown hair pulled into a stylish ponytail, green eyes, and build similar to my own, Makoto could easily pass as my biological daughter, and growing up had only strengthened those similarities. Puberty had been very kind to Makoto. Even though she was mostly Japanese, her Caucasian heritage granted her a height and build that surpassed even some of her all-American classmates. This made it doubly funny when she grew enough to tower over my friend Murphy even though she was barely through middle school. I still wouldn't let the petite cop live it down, and the dislocated shoulder I received when I'd pushed her too hard once was a rather memorable reminder.

Still completely worth it.

Now, perhaps I should reiterate this. Puberty had been _very_ kind to my daughter. I don't know if it had been the all-American diet of meat and more meat I'd raised her on or her mixed blood or what, but Makoto had gained a curvy quality that made me eye all similarly-aged males like they were hungry wolves and she was a lamb dinner. The amount of boys I had to beat off her with my staff was far too many to my liking. I guess I should be grateful that Makoto was such an adorable little daddy's girl that she never even noticed.

Raising a kid with hero worship was a lot more difficult than advertised. You'd think that someone who'd hang onto your every word (and limbs at times) would follow your orders, and for the most part, Makoto did...as long as I was actually watching her. Around me, she was the picture-perfect daughter - sweet, demure, reeking of faux-femininity. However, the second she wasn't in my line of sight or earshot she'd transform into a little hellion, causing trouble all in the name of justice.

She became widely known as bane to all bullies, and I became widely known to the school's administration.

Who would've guessed that witnessing me throw myself into harm's way on a constant basis for the sake of others while never giving a moment's thought to my own safety would influence her in such a way?

My thoughts were interrupted by Makoto's voice cutting through the low wail of the snow. "Don't tell me you're having trouble walking, papa. You're not old enough yet for your body to break down." There was a short pause, and then she continued on, a teasing quality to her words. "Though you are in your early thirties, and that _is_ pretty ancient."

Did I also mention that hanging around me for so long turned her into a bit of a smartass?

I gave a deep sigh and trundled up next to her, looping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her face into my chest. "If anything's making me age rapidly, it's having to clean up after your little evil hunting adventures. If I start going gray early, I'm holding you accountable."

I could feel her muffled giggles. "Whatever do you mean? I'm just your sweet, little baby girl. I wouldn't do anything that would trouble my papa." Noticeably, she kept her eyes firmly away from my own and focused straight on my chest. There was no worry for a chance of a soulgaze - the wizardly phenomenon of scanning a person's deepest, most intimate being - as we had already shared one the first time we met, but she was still my daughter, and we both knew she couldn't hide _anything_ from me, no matter how hard she tried.

If this was what my friend Michael Carpenter had to go through with his late-teen Molly, then I had a whole new level of respect for the man, even more so than I already did. And he had another girl ready to enter the breach. Thank heaven for that man's saintly patience; I doubted I could survive another.

Makoto wiggled around and snuggled underneath my arm, pulling me closer. She rubbed her hands together and on her face, trying to regain some warmth. The cheer from our bantering subsided a bit, allowing her ire at the cold to settle back in again. "Why couldn't I be a pyromancer or something? Be a lot more useful than being a glorified sparkplug."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Then you'd be like your old man, setting evil villains ablaze."

"And the surrounding buildings?" she added slyly.

"And the surrounding buildings," I sagely said. "But it wouldn't be our fault."

"You mean like with Daniel's birthday cake?"

Images of exploded cream and sugar flowed through my head, and then an advancing and very enraged Charity followed soon afterward. I manly held back a wince at the memory of her tongue lashing, which was shortly followed by the even more manly pastime of passing the buck "I still blame you and Mouse for that debacle.".

A small smile flitted back on Makoto's face at that, thereby reinforcing the notion that I would forever lose any battle of wits with the fairer sex. Curse me and chivalric tendencies.

Aside from that, trying to teach Makoto how to use her lightning magic had been slow-going. My forte was in the branches of fire, force, and wind magic. Although lightning could be construed as a subsidiary of air, it was still too vague for me to be a solid fountain of wisdom. As far as I could gather, Makoto's powers were based around the collection and redirection of pre-existing electricity. Normally, she could attract and divert outside electrical sources, but if it was truly necessary, she could amplify her natural bio-electricity and point it somewhere.

The time she had used my beloved Blue Beetle as a source nearly tipped the poor thing over the edge. I think that was the first time I'd ever really regretted trying to teach her how to use her magic.

Don't look at me like that! I love that bug!

It was a bit strange being both a father and instructor when I couldn't really consider myself an expert in either field, but acting as both had actually managed to polish myself as well. Although Makoto worked in a branch different from my own, the same old tricks that had been drilled into me as a teen learning to use my powers worked just as well, and made me push myself ahead in my own work and skills. Learning to spot holes or flaws in Makoto's spellslinging made it easier to notice my own, and though I hadn't improved the power of my spells because of the training, it certainly improved my control and finesse of my more subtle thaumaturgic spells. Sometimes I wondered if-

I cut myself short at the thought. No, there was no need to dwell on such memories, as enlightening and painful as they were. I needed to forge ahead and create a new path, even if it meant cutting some of the ties I used to hold so dear. I had to do so if I wanted to create a safe haven for my daughter.

I glanced at Makoto as her nose crinkled up in the way it did when she was annoyed but didn't feel like vocalizing it. She always was a bit sensitive and careful like that, but I don't think I've ever heard of a kid that didn't eventually let loose their heart's misgivings if they felt they were being pushed hard enough. And I did not want a kid who bottled things up inside. I've seen far too often the results of someone who never revealed their intentions and hidden emotions until they either blew up or went nuts. So, it looked like I was going to have to do some pushing, Harry-style.

I ruffled her hair a bit rougher than normal, pushing her cap up and allowing the snow and sleet to pound on her already-tender ears. Makoto scowled as she pulled the hat back down, giving me a fierce glare that she had cultivated over many years. I smirked in that all-too-frustrating way back at her. "What's got your panties in a twist, kiddo? You not enjoying the trip?"

Hey, just because I'd been raising a girl didn't mean I had miraculously started being a lot more tactful. Makoto was much too much of a tomboy for her own good, after all.

Makoto cut her eyes away from me immediately and pulled my arm back over her shoulders, hiding a portion of her face from sight. "S'nothing."

"Really...?" I crooned. She glanced back at me and shrugged before hiding her face again. I sighed. "Makoto..."

"'S'not fair," she mumbled. Looking back up at me, she took my small nod as permission and began to unload. "It's not fair! Why do I have to stay in Japan? Why can't I stay in Chicago with you and big sis and the Carpenters and everyone that I know? I haven't lived in Japan for almost five years! I don't know anyone there! I don't...I don't want to leave!"

She shuddered for a moment, and I took the opportunity to pull her closer to me. She looked down, avoiding my gaze, and shook some more. Silly girl...

Sending Makoto to Japan had become something of a last resort to me. Things were heating up in Chicago, and I did not want my daughter anywhere near the powder keg it was turning into. Especially considering what had occurred just last October.

An old archenemy of mine - Hell's bell, did I really just say that? - a Black Court vampire by the name of Mavra, had procured my assistance in finding a text that played a large part in the ritualistic transformation of a person into a death god. Needless to say in normal circumstances I would have told her to cram my staff up her withered butt - and in fact I did - but she had press ganged me into service by threatening one of my closest friends' career.

Murphy still didn't know she had almost lost her job, and magic-willing she never would.

Regardless, it became clear to me that even though _I_ was pretty safe from most forms of blackmail or threats, my associates weren't. My enemies had hurt my loved ones to hurt me before, and they would do so again, so I had only one choice left to me besides glassing whatever hole those scum crawled up from - I had to remove my loved ones from the equation.

Nowhere was this more apparent than with Makoto. The little superhero in her would not hesitate jumping into the fray if she thought it was for the greater good or helping me, but I simply couldn't allow her to risk herself - for me or anyone. Perhaps it was selfish, but simply imagining her in the grasps of some of the trash I had fought made me willing to sacrifice anyone else as long as she was safe.

So, she had to go - away from me and away from danger. The problem was deciding just where to send her.

Murphy was right out. She fell headfirst into danger just as much as I did, so she wouldn't be very good company in that respect. Plus, she had been targeted once already, so that was doubly dangerous.

I couldn't burden Michael. His family had already suffered once because of me, and I doubted I would survive the event if something did happen to him or his own. Charity would make sure of that.

My third choice was actually another reason to ship Makoto off. I had recently come in to the knowledge that I had a half-brother on my mother's side, Thomas Raith. That was awkward enough as it was, but it also turned out that he was a White Court vampire. White Courts sustained their life force by feeding off particular emotions of their victims, and the Raith family centered around lust. This basically translated to him being an incubus. So leaving a teenage daughter rife with hormones around him was begging for a disaster to happen.

Not that I didn't trust Thomas. The man was technically Makoto's uncle; something I'd wished remained a secret. Unfortunately I've discovered that trying to keep a secret from an inquisitive child is like trying to stop infrastructure from bursting into flames around me when I'm worked up. Still, there's no way he would have tried anything on her. The same could not be held true for Makoto - daddy's girl or not, Thomas's charm could melt any woman's unmentionables. Considering that he'd recently lost his true love and been exiled from the Raith family and unceremoniously dumped into my apartment, the man did not need to be bothered any further.

My last choice was my last for a reason. Ebenezar McCoy had been my savior when I was younger. After I had killed Justine DuMorne, my accursed adopted father and first master in magic, I had been on trial for the crime of killing a human with magic. The seven laws of magic were very strict - you break one for any reason, and off goes your head. Even though I had killed the man in self-defense, I had still killed him. I had _wanted_ to kill him.

The White Council rarely ventured into semantics with rule breaking; the result was often what mattered, not the intent. Had it not been for Ebenezar, I would have just been another bloodstain on a Grey Warden's sword. For that, I could never repay that man. He saved me, took me into his home, raised me, and taught me what it was to really use magic, to truly appreciate what it meant to have this wonderful gift.

And it _was_ a gift. Magic was the energy of life, the very bonds that kept the universe together. You could anything with magic, anything at all, but at the same time you had to respect it, to use it for the right reasons. To use it for wrong or selfish ones would only taint you, leading you into a downward spiral of depravity with only one end - the sharp, clear end of a blade.

So to find out that my savior, my teacher, my _friend_ was the Blackstaff, the wet-works man for the White Council, the only person with the privilege to defy the laws of magic with no consequences? It was the greatest betrayal I had ever felt. He had taught me that magic was pure, was clear as the mountain spring, was life itself, and it had all been a lie. He had killed, maimed, twisted, altered, plucked - all for the greater good.

He had always been the monster he warned me about.

When I first found out, I had shunned him, ignored him, denied him. It was all I could do, all I could handle without letting myself fall apart. As time passed, I came to understand who he was. He might not be the white knight I'd idolized him as, but he was still a hero. He did what no other person could do, what no other wanted to admit was the _right thing_, even if it wasn't the right way.

Even so, I couldn't forgive him, not yet. It was petty, I know, refusing the man who had saved my life, molded me into who I was today, but the wounds still ran deep, and not enough time had passed. Perhaps they would heal, and perhaps they would not, but until then...until then...

I would simply have to wait.

So, in essence, I was left with my _other_ last choice - shipping Makoto back to her homeland of Japan. It was actually a much easier endeavor than I had initially thought. Since my induction into the Wardens, I had become recognized as something other than the ticking time-bomb some of the older and more inflexible members of the White Council thought me as. Instead, I was seen as a bit of celebrity by the fresh-faced newbies being hastily shoved into the ranks thanks to the ongoing war between the Council and the Red Court vampires.

Riding a zombie t-rex to save a bunch of trick-or-treaters from a veritable zombie apocalypse on Halloween can really give you some serious street cred.

Thanks to the recently-instated South-East Asia Regional Commander, a young, up-and-coming Japanese-native, Makoto would have a safe place to hide and attempt to live a normal life (or as normal as a budding magical girl could be, at least) while things cooled down back in Chicago. It especially helped that Japan was firmly in the territory of the secretive Jade Court. Even after hundreds of years, there was almost no information about that last Court, except for two things - they liked to stay out of the limelight and they were _extremely_ territorial. There was no documented case of the Red, White, or Black managing to root into the area, and the few known cases of some actually trying usually ended up disappearing under mysterious circumstances.

So, considering I had managed to piss off, in one way or another, every other vampire court in existence, I found it doubly reassuring to place Makoto in the one place they would never be stupid enough to try and invade, especially for such a petty reason.

Shaking off foreboding thoughts, I tightened my grip around my daughter. "It's only for a little while. Just until things settle down back home." She grunted sullenly. I sighed internally. I never was one good at comforting, and even with a daughter on my hands, I still never got into the whole gooey, emotional fretting and commiserating.

So I did what I do best: I poked fun at the situation until she either responded or shocked me into submission.

"I don't know why you're so disappointed. You'll be back in Japan, home of all that asinine entertainment you love! Think about it - no more having to scrounge around in bootleg stores for those weird backwards comics of yours, no more having to order things through Michael and Charity instead of doing it yourself because you blew out the local library's computer monitor, and you can finally find people who speak that crazy moon-language of yours!"

Makoto was still and silent. But only for a moment; then she snorted and my arm around her momentarily went numb as she pumped a little static-electricity into it. "You're a real jerk sometimes, you know that, papa?"

"Would a jerk be lugging around this armoire you call luggage through a frozen tundra while a perfectly healthy woman could do it herself?" I mocked, slightly lifting the large travel-bag my daughter had packed for her extended stay. I wasn't joking either. The Ways didn't exactly have car-friendly roads, so any carrying had to be done by hand. Dragging along a basic suitcase with the bare essentials was a tedious experience I hoped to never have to go through again. Already my arm felt like it was going to fall off.

Why didn't I send it via airmail? Considering both my and Makoto's experience with flight, I wouldn't be surprised if her luggage simply vanished into thin air in that metal atrocity called a plane.

Pins and needles raced through my arm as she pinched me. "A chivalric jerk, yes." Though she was still sniffling, I could definitely see the corners of her lips perking up.

"Alas, I supposed my niceties towards women defeat me at every turn."

This time, she laughed. "You're such a goofball." Her giggling tapering off, and she grasped my hand with hers. "You promise to at least visit me every so often? You know, when you're not too busy saving the world?"

I smiled and leaned over. "Wild outsiders couldn't keep me away, Sparky," I murmured with a peck to her forehead. She murmured something nonsensical in response, and then the two of us fell into relative silence as we continued onward. The uneasiness was still there, but at least it had been diminished for the time being.

After a short while, the rocky landscape transformed into something more exotic. Looking around, I noticed that we seemed to have walked into a forest of some type, though it was one of the oddest I'd ever come across, even in the Nevernever.

There were trees, ferns, shrubs, even flowers, so that wasn't odd. No, what was odd was the fact that they were made completely out of ice. Like glorious ice sculptures crafted by the most obsessive artist in the world, every single work of flora was meticulously cut to represent some form of plant life. Light refracted through their almost alien geometries, casting an ethereal illumination throughout the clearing we were in.

Something alighted onto my shoulder, a crisp chill touching my flesh even through the layers of clothing. Picking it up carefully, I was shocked to see it was an iced leaf. There was no organic material within its crystallized form, but its anatomy was almost identical to that of a cherry blossom petal. Slowly, due to the warmth of my body, it melted back into pure water and disappeared.

See, this is what freaked me out about the Nevernever. As beautiful as this scene was admittedly, it pretty much violated all laws of biology and physics, turning a winter wonderland into something out of a sugary-laden Lovecraft novel.

Pulling an awed Makoto along with me, I made my way to where the ice blossoms were coming from - a large, crystaline cherry blossom tree. The branches were making a tinkling sound as the wind blew through it, adding to the eldritch feeling of the place.

Well, at least now I knew the Japanese warden was completely serious and it wasn't a translation error on my part when he said to find where the "ice sakura" was. Still, this was just _odd._

In any case, I drew Makoto's attention back to me, startling her out of whatever amazing fantasy she was concocting in her head. She looked dazed before refocusing, and nodded. I nodded back before placing a hand on the tree's frozen trunk.

_"Aparturum."_

With that single pseudo-Latin word, I ripped an opening between the Nevernever and the real word. Almost like improperly cut fabric, a gap opened where the tree trunk originally was, and I could see through it onto a scene of an idyllic-looking park. Making sure the coast was clear, I stepped into the gap, Makoto following closely behind.

Once both of us were out, I spoke again and close the gap behind us. Almost immediately, I began to sweat, the sheer difference in temperature between Tokyo and the Nevernever making itself apparent. I quickly stripped off my winter coat, catching Makoto doing the same out of the corner of my eye. What we were wearing underneath was still a bit too warm for springtime, but it was much more bearable than before.

Taking a look around, I took note of where we had emerged. We seemed to be in a section of the nature park the warden had directed us to come out of, right next to a large cherry blossom that overlooked a hill. Luckily, there weren't any trails around us, so we wouldn't have to worry about people becoming alarmed at witnessing us appearing from nowhere.

Gathering up my coat and Makoto's luggage, I motioned for her to follow and made my way to the trail so that we could leave the park and get to the apartment complex the warden had set up for us. She quickly followed, grabbing my arm again and smiling way too adorably to be completely innocent.

I rolled my eyes, tilted my head, and dragged her along. It wasn't a perfect beginning to a great idea, but then again, neither were the two of us. Still, it was a beautiful day, my daughter would be safe, and there was only so much trouble she could get into while staying here.

All in all, I think everything was looking up.

* * *

My papa was twenty-percent cooler than everyone else. He was tall, kinda handsome in a rakish way, smooth with the ladies (even if half either wanted to kill him or draw him to the dark side,) and a great papa. Sure, he couldn't cook to save his life, most flammable objects spontaneously combust in his wake, and he won't wear that awesome hat I got for his birthday, but still, he had one thing going for him no-one else I knew had.

He was a superhero.

No, really, I'm totally serious about this. He's got everything - the powers, the secret base, being part of a large group meant to stop bad guys from taking over the world. Ok, maybe his costume could use a little work and he's pretty much beat the tar out of his secret identity, what with him advertising himself in the phone book, but really: he's a superhero and he saves people.

I should know, he saved me from a bunch of really creepy supernatural creatures that were trying to eat me because I actually managed to survive them crashing a plane. He says that I did most of the work, what with me frying them like I was flinging tasers all over the place, but the fact that he raced halfway across the city to save me just because he wanted to is proof enough of his heroics. And because of that, I really want to follow in his footsteps and learn how to save people using my own special powers.

How do you do? I'm Makoto Kino Dresden, hero-in-training - no missing pet too hard to find, no bully too tough to beat, no electronic device I can't charge (though I might fry it before it reaches full capacity.)

Finding out you're a veritable magic girl is really cool, and having a bona-fide wizard as your dad and mentor makes it even more awesome. He might always be going on about being careful with my powers and to only use them when I absolutely have to, but I've seen papa whip out his wand and blast a baddie without even thinking about it, and if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me.

Of course, I'm not so dumb as to outright disobey him and his rules. I've seen what happens when you just jump into problems without having either the preparation or the intelligence to fight your way out. I see it every time papa takes off his glove to do his daily exercises with the smoked remains of what used to be his hand. You might have magic to back you up, but it's nothing more than a skill-set; and there's no one thing that can fix every problem you come across.

Sometimes that nail you see might just rebound into your face if you hit it with a hammer.

In any case, my papa was still the best. He could use magic, he'd saved oodles of people, the city of Chicago, and probably the world on several occasions, and he still managed to set aside enough time and energy to raise an orphan like me. I know he sacrificed a lot so that he could legally adopt me, especially now that I'm older and I've seen the type of people he's dealt with, so there's no way I can't listen to what he says when I know he's just trying to do what's best for me.

Still, that doesn't mean I can turn a blind eye to injustice around me. If I see wrongs happening right in front of me, I have to do something about it! Just like the heroes in the comics and cartoons papa's always teasing me about.

I don't care what he says - defeat can totally lead to friendship if you just try hard enough! ...it just hasn't happened to me yet. You'd think people would be impressed by your ability to dropkick a jerk off the monkey bars when he's shaking kids down for their lunch money, but nooo, you get sent to the principal's office about how that's 'dangerous' and 'not appropriate for a young lady your age' and 'bones aren't meant to bend that way.'

Even with all the trouble I might have caused (and I still say it was in the name of justice!), I was still reluctant to move back to Japan. I knew of the danger papa was afraid of - hell's bells, I saw some of the horrors he fought and had been on the receiving end of one or two or three of them - but it was still my home, even if I'd only spent a third of my life there. I'd made friends, had a new family, found new people to learn from and live with and love. Even if it was only for a little bit, I didn't want to leave them all behind.

Plus, my Japanese was pretty rusty not being around the language 24/7, and I was _not _looking forward to trying to decipher all the new kanji I'd invariably come across; I'd barely started learning them when I left Japan!

Still, I was in Japan now, and I had to make the best of it. And at least papa would stay with me long enough to get me settled in and make sure I was 100% safe, the paranoid dope.

My first morning back in Tokyo went like any other morning. I hit the switch to my wind-up alarm clock just as it started ringing. Groggily, I rose out of the futon and gave a muffled yawn. It would take a little longer to get my internal clock used to the new time region, but I always was good at getting up. Changing sleeping schedules before we left helped as well.

Making sure not to wake papa up, I padded across the small family unit apartment, curling my toes appreciatively at the feeling of tatami mats under my soles. I'd always enjoyed the tightly-woven texture, and getting the chance to do so again after so long made me sink into sweet nostalgia.

The apartment the warden had set up for us was a one room mansion located in a small apartment complex in the Azabu-Juuban neighborhood of Tokyo. It was small and cozy and, I was happy to note, very low tech. As was much of the neighborhood funnily enough. I loved how people back in Chicago thought that Japan was some huge tech giant, with high-tech gadgets in every house and everything being automated. That couldn't be further from the truth; although Japan was a huge exporter of electronic goods, it actually wasn't all that big on technology in the common household. Leave that to such electric meccas like Shinjuku and Akihabara.

Even when I was young and still with my biological parents, the fanciest piece of machinery we had was our AC unit. So it was pretty easy to transition to an actual icebox and wood-burning stove, even if that was a whole different mess of problems and it made it hard to get papa to start eating home-cooked meals instead of eating out at old man Mac's all the time (even if he did make a really good steak.)

Still, I learned, and today would be no different. I even woke up extra early as normal so that I could make both breakfast and a bento for both papa and me. I had a gas burner, a rice cooker, all the cooking utensils I wanted, and a full icebox, all courtesy of that nice regional warden.

Setting the rice to cook, I got started on the rest of the meal. The classic breakfast was eggs over easy with soy sauce, rice, miso soup, and a small salad. All tasty and neat and healthy. Papa really was over reliant on cheap fast-food, and while it was okay to eat, it wasn't healthy at all. Even though papa took to running, usually as the result of a horrific abomination trying to eat him, that still wasn' enough to offset his daily calorie intake thanks to those fried meals of lard, and if there was one thing I didn't want, it was a tubby papa.

As I went into auto-pilot, cooking and mixing and adding and tasting, my mind went back to when papa first adopted me. I was scared and lonely and had no one to turn to. My parents were my only relatives, being only children themselves and their own parents long since gone, and I was left in a foreign land with the sudden knowledge that I could shoot lightning bolts from my hands. I was terrified, to say the least.

And then papa came dashing in like a super sentai and fixed all my problems. Well, he tried to anyway; he wasn't exactly the smoothest operator when it came to child-rearing, but he did his best and I have close-to-zero complaints.

I still think he should make me his sidekick in crimefighting, though.

Also, there were so many things I still didn't know about papa! Kinda weird since I saw directly into his very soul when we first met - that whole magical soulgaze thing and all - and whenever I wanted to learn what he was doing I could always ask Bobbu, but some things would always be hidden, and there were certainly some new things since he adopted me that I still didn't quite get.

Placing breakfast onto the low table, I silently walked back over to where papa was still asleep. He always had bad sleeping posture, and this morning was no exception - his arms were flung about, his legs tangled in his sheets, his mouth wide open yet not snoring.

Not very dignified, papa.

How could a man that was so open when he was asleep be able to keep so many secrets? Like where did he learn to speak Japanese so well? Just last month, he could only hold a basic conversation using polite language, and his accent was atrocious. Even after making it his own personal crusade to learn Japanese well enough so that I could keep a part of my heritage with me, he sounded like, well, like how a Japanese person trying to sound like an American trying to speak Japanese sounds - really silly.

So I was expecting to be all kinds of embarrassed when we made contact with the apartment manager as he stumbled over the words, but he took me completely by surprise by not only speaking the language perfectly but almost erasing his American accent as well! What, was there some kind of translation magic I wasn't aware of? And if there was, why hadn't he ever told me? Was he just waiting to see my slack-jawed expression?

Oh wait, this was papa, of course he was.

Pursing my lips, I looked down at the sleeping man. Men who made their daughters look like idiots needed to be punished. Deciding on that course of action, I pinched his nose. It took a couple seconds, but then he started to sputter in his sleep, jolted once, and then opened his eyes. By the time he did, however, I had already removed my hand and was sitting at attention, seiza style, a good foot from him.

I beamed, closing my eyes, and hoping that the smile I wore didn't betray the actual source of my mirth. "Morning, papa!"

He let out a short, punctuated snort. "Morning, kiddo." Sitting up carefully and crossing his legs, he shot a hand out and ruffled my hair a bit more forcefully than normal. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine. You?"

"Fine. Right up until I stopped being able to breathe."

Keep eye contact. Don't look away. That's how you lose. "Really?" I kept my tone as neutral and innocent as possible. "Maybe it was ghosts?" What? Ghosts were real.

"Right...ghosts..." He kept his eyes leveled on me for another impossibly long second before snorting again and removing his hand. "So, what's for breakfast?"

I smiled brightly and led him over to the low table before setting out the meal in front of us. With a short rendition of "Let's eat," which papa totally slaughtered on purpose considering it's been a ritual since he took me in, we dug into the meal I prepared. I was pleased to note that the quality of the meal was a bit higher than usual. Guess food prepared from the same place the ingredients came from tastes better. Or maybe that was just whimsical thinking.

Papa was no help in that regard; he simply ate his food like a man, complimenting me on my improving skills like he always did. I couldn't help but feel myself blush at his brusque but affectionate comments. I knew I was pretty much a hopeless tomboy considering my hero-worship, but I did want to be my papa's little princess even if he knew my true self. Cooking was a fun and feminine hobby, and it made me proud to note that I was pretty much the only real feminine influence in papa's life - no offense to big sis or auntie Charity.

I giggled at the few bits of rice clinging to his scruffy chin, and he looked at me with a bewildered expression before I plucked them off. Papa rolled his eyes and rubbed his cheek with his sleeve before returning to his meal. We sat and ate in comfortable silence before papa broke it.

"So, you ready to transfer into your new school?"

"I guess." I shrugged. "It's definitely going to be awkward."

"Not as much as you think probably. You're not transferring in the middle of the year, after all." He smirked, that roguish smile that I knew made female friends and foes alike want to simultaneously swoon and punch him in the face. "You can thank this country's messed up school year for that." He chuckled roughly. "What kinda education system makes the students come to a new school right before summer break? It's like they're asking the kids to play hooky."

I quirked an eyebrow. "We aren't all juvenile delinquents like you were at my age, papa."

"I wasn't a juvenile delinquent! I simply...had a legacy of misspent youth." He grumbled at my short burst of giggling, his face contorted in the most adorable way. Papa would never admit to it, but he was so _cute_ when he was embarrassed. Like a puppy who had just taken its chew toy taken from it. He cleared his throat in an attempt to side-track the conversation. "What about your uniform? You gonna be ok wearing your old track suit?"

It was my turn to frown cutely and grumble. I don't know what the problem was with Japan, but why was everyone so _short?_ Sure, the average height of the Japanese population had increased over the last century, but I still felt like I was a hulking brute when compared to other girls my age. I was never really that troubled by it back in Chicago - while still one of the tallest girls in my class, I wasn't _the_ tallest and I didn't exactly tower over the majority of the rest - but I suddenly felt super awkward when I was walking with papa on the way to the apartment and all these little 'kawaii' girlies passed by me, so petite and slender that I knew they would trip any guy's 'protect' instincts in an instant.

Not that I was rushing to find a guy to protect me. I could take care of myself, thank you very much, and I had papa. No guy my age, younger _or_ older, could even hold a candle to him. Kinda hard to find a boy interesting enough when they all paled in comparison to the super-awesomness that was my papa.

Still, it irked me that because of my larger-than-average stature, there weren't any school uniforms that fit me. The normally accepted ones were several sizes too small for me, so we couldn't just grab one off the rack at a store. If I wanted one, we'd have to get one custom-ordered. I...wasn't really looking forward to that. Luckily, with the help of the regional warden, I had gotten permission to simply wear a track suit while at school. Even better, I could quickly order some of the male-sized ones and wear those when I got more settled in.

Of course, that would just make me stick out like a sore thumb even more, and I did _not_ relish that thought. As long gone as I'd been from Japan, I still remembered the old motto of, "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." I was gonna catch enough flak because of my normal personality; probably wouldn't help to be pointed out visually as well.

Papa must have noticed my discomfort, because he followed up his question with his usual way of diffusing tension - acting like a goober. I yelped when something splatted on my face. Finally focusing back on the present, I saw that he had flicked some grains of rice at me, a shit-eating grin plastered across his face.

"You with me again, Sparky?"

I pulled off the grains and ate them, sticking out my tongue when I was finished. "You should know better than to waste food." I said with a mocking sternness. "There are starving children in China."

His grin grew. "That's something only adults are allowed to say."

"Not if the adult is the one being fed by the child."

"Touché." There was a brief pause...and then he flicked a few more grains at me.

I sputtered at his bluntness before making a counter-attack. Soon, pieces of food were flying back and forth across the table as we used our chopsticks to launch whatever scraps and crumbs were left over from the main meal. It was going to be a nightmare to clean up, especially if the food got grounded into the tatami mats, but I doubted present us were going to give that any considerations considering the all-out food fight we had devolved into.

Soon, the exchange of scraps slowed, the two of us panting softly - not from exhaustion, but simply from laughing too hard at the sheer lunacy and silliness we had fallen into. Both of us were splotched with random bits of food, and it was going to take some extra hard scrubbing to get the egg yolk out of papa's shirt, but the atmosphere had regained its levity, even if the cost had been so very, very stupid.

"Feeling better?" Papa asked. I nodded, and his grin tilted into something softer. "Good." He reached across the table and removed a piece of bread that had lodged itself in my bangs. "I know it's hard, kiddo, but I also know you're gonna be just fine here. No kid of Harry Dresden is going to let something as stupid as a dress code get her down."

I sighed in hopeless exasperation. Trust papa to cheer me up with a spontaneous breakfast battle.

Papa continued to pick pieces of food off of me as he talked. "It'll only be for so long, and this is as safe a place for you I can find. Besides, it'll be healthy for you to get some reunion time with your home culture." He tweaked my nose, and I sniffed back a snort. "Just don't go crazy on me; don't want to come back and find my daughter has become a gang leader while I was gone."

I did snort at that. "I think you've been reading some of my manga behind my back." He gave me a subdued smirk. I rolled my shoulders and began to return the favor, sweeping my hands on his shoulder and chest to get rid of food. "Besides, I doubt I'd be a good one. Too much kanji involved."

"You're certainly better than me on that subject. All three of your written languages look like a kid got into an inkpot and scribbled out random symbols."

Oh no, he wasn't gonna get away with that kind of thing so easily. No way was I gonna let him brush off his sudden mastery of the language that had taken him less time than it took for a native-speaker to relearn basic grammar.

"You're just too lazy to try and remember anything beyond your silly American language."

"Hey, I live in America, so that's all I need to know."

"You do realize that American is a dialect of English, right?"

"Don't point out my mistakes in basic language skills with your silly logic!" He trailed off when he noticed the smug look on my face. "What? You look like you just pulled one off on your old man." He glanced at himself briefly. "Did you do something to me when I wasn't looking?"

Well, nothing physical at least. I had, however, managed to trick him into revealing something. During our silly conversation, I'd slipped into using Japanese in the middle of a sentence. Without missing a beat, papa had continued to talk - in Japanese - without. I now knew that there was some magical tomfoolery afoot. There was no way papa was smart enough to just shift into a different language without even noticing what he'd done, especially through mundane means.

Papa frowned. "Seriously, Makoto, that grin of yours is starting to..." He stopped for a moment, his eyes rolling to the top left. He said nothing for a few moments and then heaved a great, annoyed sigh. "I'm not talking American, am I?"

If it was possible for my shit-eating grin to get bigger, it would've consumed my face just from that realization.

He grumbled and brushed off his shoulder. "You're starting to get too clever for your own good. Pretty soon I'm going to have to chain you to your bed so you don't start sneaking out at night for vigilante activities."

I wasn't that stupid. Papa was _way_ too light a sleeper for me to even try to sneak out of that old, noisy apartment. Besides...Mouse would just pick me up and drag me back to bed before pinning me to the mattress with his shaggy mass.

"So...?" I leaned forward, switching back to English. "Will you tell me how you skipped from being largely incompetent in Japanese to sudden grandmaster?" If it had something to do with Bobbu I was so gonna bribe that horny skull with all the 18+ doujinshi I could get my hands on until he spilled all the awesome secrets in his vast library of knowledge.

Papa picked up his cup of green tea, something I'd been hammering into his palate, and took a long pull. He closed his eyes and hummed thoughtfully. "Ancient wizarding secret."

My grin drooped into an annoyed frown. "I'm fourteen. Everything is ancient wizarding secret to me."

Papa opened one eye very briefly and stared at me. The corner of his lip quirked up. "So it is."

I pouted, not being able to help myself. "I'm not gonna get anything more out of you, am I?"

"You are wise beyond your years, grasshopper." He took another long, drawn-out, and rather noisy sip. "Not too wise, though."

I folded my arms and looked away, my pout growing. Ok, so that road of attack had failed but at least I'd gotten some information out of it. As soon I got home I was grab Bobbu and hold him hostage until I plucked every last bit of info from him.

Wow, I sounded like a really cliché afterschool villain there. This was bothering me a lot more than I'd thought.

My thoughts were broken by another long slurp from papa drinking his tea. Facing him again, I saw that my shit-eating grin had transferred onto him. I just grumbled in the face of my surrender and went back to finishing off breakfast. Papa returned to his as well.

The two of us finished breakfast, chatting about random things as were wont to do, particularly about what we had planned for the day. While I went to my first day at a new school, papa would go to visit the warden and examine the safehouse I was going to live in during my stay in Japan. Knowing him, he would examine every nook and cranny and probably set up a dozen more wards on what was already there to make sure nothing could get at me. I really loved my papa, but he could be a bit too twitchy at times.

With the both of us dressed, me in my track suit and papa in his customary duster and carrying his whacking-stick, we made our way out of the apartment and into the fresh spring air of the surrounding neighborhood. The apartment was located in a lesser-traveled area of the Juuban district, so there wasn't much traffic aside from the two of us. It was nice and peaceful, and spoke of good fortunes for the rest of the day. Rarely did papa and I get to just walk around without the constant worry that we were about to be assaulted by some random Nevernever creature or the like.

Ok, maybe that was a bit of an over-exaggeration, but you get jumped by one animal of mystical background and you tend to be wary of the next. We still get jumpy whenever parent-teacher night comes around.

We continued on in pointless conversation, him teasing me about all of Japan's strange idiosyncrasies that I knew he only learned just for that purpose, and me taking it all in stride like a good daughter would, nodding or making small noises of assent as his expressions grew more comical.

I got my revenge, though. When the two of were about to part ways, I swung my arms around papa's neck and, before he could even react, planted the biggest, sloppiest kiss I could on his cheek. An older Japanese woman caught the scene and made a few choice disparaging remarks, stomping off in a huff. The blush and pinched look on papa's face was completely worth all the teasing from before, and I just laughed before waving and running off.

He should be relieved that's all I did as payback. It was only a couple years ago that I had stopped announcing to everyone that I was going to be papa's bride with complete sincerity. Saving a girl and then raising her as your own tends to have a large impact, especially when the girl was in the throes of 'white knight syndrome.' Kissing papa in public was a good several steps down from the total Electra complex I was rocking back then.

Fun side fact: that was also around the time "The Tale of Genji" was banned from our house and Bobbu was locked inside a stainless steel box for about a week. Let's just say that the two were related and leave it at that.

Now that putting papa in his place was in order, it was time to make a good first impression at my new school. I still was of the belief that staying in Japan was stupid, but papa only wanted what was best for me, so I couldn't argue too heartily. Just had to prove capable of taking care of myself, and maybe papa would put me on probation and take me home early!

I pumped my fists in front of me and nodded. Yeah! That would absolutely work! Now, all I had to do was find a way to prove myself and I would be on the fast track back home where all the real fun was.

It was at that point that Lady Luck threw me a fat ball down the middle. As I turned a corner, I came across a scene that nearly made me rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't just seeing things. Blinking, I realized that, yes, this was actually happening.

A young Japanese girl in a sailor fuku, probably around the same age as me, had dashed around a corner and smacked right into a trio of men who I could only describe as 'delinquency personified.' Bright, flashy clothing? Check. Hairdos that were dumb back in the 80s? Check. Language skills that made papa - well, past papa - sound like a professor? Check.

The girl had ran full-tilt into the smallest one and immediately been thrown backwards, falling on her butt in the girliest manner possible. The delinquent she'd run into took one step back then crashed to the ground like a wrecking ball had hit him instead of a girl that was probably only ninety pounds soaking wet. Immediately he started screaming as though all his bones had snapped at once while his shifty friends began to accost the poor teen.

I knew a shakedown when I saw one. It happened often enough in Chicago, though not as blatantly and not nearly as amateurish. And the bullies there certainly didn't pick on kids nearly half their size and who looked as defenseless as a bunny.

Still, good fortune was staring me right in the face, and there was no way I was going to let it get away from me ungrabbed - for both my sake and the girl's. Justice Mode Unlocked!

Heaving myself onto the ledge next to me, I got a much better perspective of the situation. Also, it made what I was about to do a whole lot easier and cooler. With a quick burst of speed, I rushed along the ledge before launching myself off it, foot extended forward and my classic battlecry bursting from my lips.

"Dynamic Entry!"

There was a squawk of surprise and pain when my foot made contact with the rear of the delinquent looming over the girl. He went flying forward, smacking the ground and sliding a good couple feet. There was a pregnant pause before the other two guys whirled on me with flabbergasted looks of anger and shock.

"The hell waz dat?!"

The shock may have also been because I had to scramble back to my feet after falling onto my butt from the drop kick. The movies made it seem _way_ easier.

I smirked and rubbed a thumb under my nose. Ok, so papa said it was always best to try and scare away possible danger before actually engaging it in a fight, but these were normal, vanilla humans, and I'm pretty damn sure I could easily take them in a fight without having to worry about them being Grimm fairytale creatures in disguise. Besides, it felt _really_ satisfying to give that one jerk a boot in the butt.

As much as papa would grumble if he saw it, I knew he'd agree with me even if he'd never say it out loud.

Of course, what I did next would most likely result in a grounding and dope-slap to the back of the head if he ever found out.

"What kinda men are you, picking on a little girl like that? All she did was bump into you and you gang up on her like that?" I formed my hand into a thumbs-down and stuck out my tongue. "As long as justice lives, I'll never let jerks like you get away with crimes like that."

"And who da the hell are ya to tell us what ta do?"

I grinned. "Just a justice-loving gal with superheroing as a hobby."

Oh stars and stones - monologuing. If there was on thing papa hated more than a needless fight, it was monologuing. Papa said it was the sort of thing that only belonged in comic books, and that people who did it were much too full of themselves. But it was just so _fun_. Oh well, whatever papa didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

My all-too awesome speech must've riled up the remaining two delinquents even more than my surprise drop kick, because the largest of them, a specimen that was the living embodiment of steroids, took the opportunity to advance on me.

Roid Rage sneered nastily. "You should leave the heroics ta big guys, little girly. Ya might get hurt otherwise." He punctuated his threat by cracking his knuckles all at once.

My smile grew larger, the excitement from the situation almost heady. "Spoken like a true small-fry."

The dark amusement from Roid's eyes dropped instantly, replaced by something simpler - base anger. "Why you...!" He raised a fist and threw a haymaker.

Too easy. Roid obviously had no training because he overextended himself, throwing his shoulder too far in with his wild swing. It was child's play to kick his forward leg out from underneath him and add a smack to the back of his head for safe measure. The sudden spin in his balance caused him to crash face-first into the cement. I planted my foot on the center of his back and pushed down, easily keeping him pinned despite him probably having a hundred or so pounds on me.

Did I mention I had superhuman strength and endurance? No? Because I did, and it was awesome as hell. Papa said it might have something to do with my electromancy powers and that I might be 'super-charging' my muscles so that they had more tensile strength, or whatever it was that made me able to crack a cinder-block in half at age ten. He wasn't quite certain, though, and made it a point not to try and test the limits of my improved abilities.

I certainly had though. Papa never quite forgave me for the time I jumped off the Carpenter's garage trying to prove I could fly and ended up breaking their fancy bird bath instead of my bones.

Once that had been discovered, though, papa made sure I could protect myself via more mundane means. At first I wanted to learn karate so I could be a martial-arts master that could blast lightning, but he had the mental image of me punching a plug out of an unsuspecting mugger and turned me over to big sis instead.

She insisted that I learn a softer form of fighting instead of impact arts. At first I was hesitant to learn aikido, 'cause it looked like a wimpy alternative to the karate kid's crane kick. But when I became a witness to her flipping a dude twice her size and three times her weight with all the grace of a dancer and the effort of lifting chopsticks I became instantly enamored.

So, with two of the three stooges out of commission, the last one, Mr. Whiney, took one look at me before dashing off like a whipped dog. Huh, guess he hadn't hurt his leg that badly after all.

I took the chance to look over the girl I'd just saved and had to bite my tongue to stop from laughing. Oh stars and stones, that _hair!_ Her blonde strands were split into two waist-length ponytails with two clumps near her scalp. Who told her that was a good fashion choice? It didn't look good, it just made me hungry for the Carpenter's Italian night. I bit the inside of my cheek, hoping that the mirth deep inside wouldn't escape, and opened my mouth. "You ok? They didn't rough you up too bad, did they?"

The girl gulped and shook her head side-to-side frantically. "No!" she squeaked, her high-pitched voice almost grating on the ears. "You saved me. Thanks so much!"

My smiled melted into something softer. "That's good." I turned around and waved a hand over my shoulder. "Try not to get into any more trouble, k?"

A small cry of, "Al-alright!" came from behind me, and I had to prevent myself from squealing in delight. Had to keep my cool look, right? Jogging back to where I'd left my bag, I grabbed it and made my way back to the route that would bring me to Juuban High.

Today had started out great. I had a good breakfast with papa, got the last word in on him, and saved an innocent citizen while looking badass in the process. The sky was clear, I had a fresh start, and things were moving a fine direction.

Things were really looking up today.

* * *

Things were not looking up today.

I sighed as I dug into my lunch. Sitting underneath a tree in the school's courtyard. Alone.

I don't think I made all that good of an impression on the rest of the students and faculty, thus my isolation during lunchtime. I thought my self-introduction to my homeroom was pretty well-done, though maybe it was a bit much to announce my availability to fix any violations of justice. Or maybe it was when I told my classmates that papa's job was 'wizard-for-hire' that I put everyone off.

Or maybe it was when I was approached by that overly-friendly and touchy-feely member of the soccer club and ended up tossing him ten feet down the hall when his hands got a little too ambitious.

Whatever it was, I now had rumors about me flying all over the school, and students who had once been crowding around me to learn more were now avoiding my like I had some contagious disease. Rumors that I was a gang leader, that I had been expelled from my old school for fighting, that I had some sort of sickness caught in the eighth-grade. There were even rumors that papa had ties to the mafia and I was sent here to avoid some violent turf war happening back in trigger-happy America.

How dare they say that papa had ties to...how dare they say papa was _friendly_ with the mob? He was cordial at best and more prone to socking a Gentleman in the gut than shaking his hand!

Another sigh exploded from my lips. I really did want to have a _somewhat_ normal life here, but it looked like my personality had gotten the best of me and messed that up somewhat fierce. I wasn't really forward to a full year of being avoided or at best politely ignored, but it wasn't like I was going to live in this place forever, so I just had to take in on the chin and push forward. At least the courtyard was a nice place to eat, so that wasn't so bad.

A small spark tickled the back of my brain. I rolled my eyes and raised my voice. "If you're trying to peep, you're not doing a very good job at it." There was a small squeak of surprise in the bush behind me.

Probably as another side-effect of my powers, I could vaguely detect other people around me. I think it had something to do with my body resonating with the innate bio-electricity of other living beings, but whatever it was I had the equivalent of a natural radar system in my head. It wasn't that powerful - I couldn't differentiate between electrical sources, only tell where they were, and it was only really useful when there were few people around, or it would all sorta blend together and lose its effectiveness - but it gave me a killer advantage when people tried to sneak up on me, and I never lost when I was 'it' at hide-and-seek.

"You can come out, you know. I don't bite."

There was awkward laughter and then out popped the same girl I'd rescued that morning. My eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, it's you. I didn't know you went to this school." I hadn't really paid any attention to the uniform she was wearing, but it was clear now that she had the same white, blue, and red fuku that the other female students had on. "Did you get to school without anymore trouble?"

She put a hand behind her head and giggled cutely. "Yes! Thank you again! Ah, I'm Usagi Tsukino!"

"Makoto Dresden."

"I know! I heard all about you in school! Ah! I mean..." She swallowed at my raised eyebrow. Yeah, I knew what she meant. Still, felt a bit disappointed that the rumors were so prevalent. My dark thoughts were banished when she waved her hands frantically in front of her. "It's not like I believe any of them! I really do think you're a hero! You saved me after all!"

At that, a bit of flush rose in my cheeks. Oh gods, I wanted to squeeze her so bad when she said that. I don't know what it is about Japanese girl school uniforms, but everything about them made female students into little cuddle-magnets. I think papa rubbed off on me with his denial but desire of cutesy things needing to be hugged.

"Oh, um, thank you." I blinked and schooched over to the side. "Do you want to join me?"

Her face blossomed into a sunny smile. "Sure!" She quickly filled in the spot I had opened and plopped her lunch bag in her lap.

I turned back to my food, but it wasn't long before I noticed her staring intently at my lunch, a bit of drool leaking from the corner of her mouth. I smiled weakly and offered her the box. "Would you like a bite?"

She jumped slightly and giggled nervously. "Ah, I really don't eat that much but if you insist..." With speed almost too quick for me to see, Usagi grabbed a rice ball and shoved nearly the whole thing into her mouth, muttering a muffled "Thanks for the food!"

I blinked again. A sly grin worked its way to my face. With the way she was chowing down on that rice ball, I very much doubted she was the kind of girl that watched what she ate. She must've had one heck of a metabolism to keep her petite figure despite her voracious eating. I was almost jealous of her small stature. I looked down at myself and then at her again. My smirk became more pronounced.

_Almost_ jealous.

"I'm glad you like it. I'm pretty proud of my cooking."

"Mako, ah, I'm sorry, I can call you Mako, right?" I smiled at the cute nickname, pausing only for a moment when I saw that she had speared one of my side-dishes with her fork without me noticing. When had she...? I sighed internally. 'Didn't eat that much' my butt. "You cooked all of this on your own?"

I nodded and popped a small rolled egg omelet into my mouth. "My papa's not very good at cooking, so if I hadn't learned we would have eaten nothing but take-out most of the time."

Usagi bounced up-and-down. "Well, you're really good at it! Maybe you can teach me? Or! Or! Maybe you could just make me a bento instead...?" She leaned over and rubbed her head into my shoulder like a cat would, that same empty, happy smile plastered all over her face.

I couldn't help but laugh. Ok, so maybe she was a bit ditzy, kinda flaky, and had the eating habits of Mouse, but she was also good-natured, friendly, and as cute as her namesake. It couldn't hurt to get closer to her, especially as she was the only one thus far to not avoid my gaze whenever I entered a room. Though from what I'd seen, I had the feeling that Usagi wouldn't mind talking to a slobbering troll as long as it fed her.

As we moved on to aimless chattering, I noted that maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all. I had a new home, a new school, and, most importantly, a new friend.

Yup, I think my time in Tokyo was going to be a fun time after all.

A/N (Irritus): New chapter get! Wow, I'm not dead, after all...bit surprising that. And I just realized I use that gag WAY too often...

Anyway, you can tell where this chapter begins in both the Dresden and Sailor Moon timeline. If not, read/watch the source material again! For those reading, do note that the entirety of this series was based off of a 'for want of a nail' premise. Only one little thing was changed (no, smaller than that), and it's up to you to see what it was. Don't expect to see any major deviations from the source material, unless it's a result of Harry/neoMakoto's influence.

On a separate note, maybe this'll mean that Raithe will leave me alone now that I got a new chapter o-

**HaahahahaNO**.

...well, poo on that then. See you next time! Expect more collateral damage goodness in the next episode of Senshi Files!

A/N (Raithe): The floggings continued until production improved. Now to start working on that morale problem…

In all seriousness, though, Real Life has been trying to murder Irritus, so don't be too hard on him for taking so long; some sarcasm and a few ounces of passive-aggressive scorn will suffice.

**ALL MY HATE FOR YOU.**

Shut it. I don't have much else to add except to warn that, in case it wasn't obvious by now, this fic is going to be _spoiler-tastic_, especially for Dresden Files, so I really recommend you read at least through Dead Beat (book 7) if you haven't already. In fact, I recommend you read through the entire series anyway, even if you already have.

ZOMBIE DINOSAURS, people!


	2. File 02: Thunder Blitz

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Dresden Files. If I did, Moon would not be so useless, and fans would burn me at the stake for destroying Harry's awesomeness

**The Senshi Files: Silver Warden  
File 02: Thunder Blitz  
By Irritus185/Raithe**

Parents just don't get enough appreciation for all the work they do. They cook, clean, educate, protect, love, and raise their children for no reason other than wanting them to grow up healthy and happy. Often, it's a thankless job, with the children not caring about all the trouble they put their parents through.

Temper tantrums, teenage rebellion, whining, disobeying rules, demanding things they can't or shouldn't have, parent-teacher conferences, even calls from the local police - each of these is an obstacle which makes it so much harder than it needs to be for a parent to make their child's life productive and beneficial.

My mother died shortly after giving birth to me, and my father died when I was still a kid. I don't know how good a mom mine might have been, but I'm certain that my dad was the best he could've possibly been given our circumstances. We might have moved around a lot, and it certainly wasn't easy, but he still tried and it showed. I lived, I learned, and I'm still here today.

It was hard, but I'm sure that almost any parent can say that it was worth it.

At the moment, though, I was having problems thinking on the positive side while also being confronted by a police officer for being 'suspicious.' Again.

'Suspicious' here means that I was obviously foreign and was wearing an outfit that belonged more in a film noir flic than out on the street with the 'normal' people.

Hurray for having to deal with xenophobic people thanks to my darling daughter! She was going to get snarked at so badly when I saw her again, both for unintentionally forcing me into situations like this and for that little prank she pulled when we separated earlier in the morning.

My frustration must've shown on my face because the policeman frowned and narrowed his eyes at me. "And what, exactly, are you doing here again?"

I somehow resisted the urge to roll my eyes, though it was a close call. I had been talking to the man for the past ten or so minutes, explaining where I was going and that no, I wasn't going to cause any trouble. I threw him off a bit when I responded to his choppy English with my nearly flawless Japanese, but I honestly think that just frazzled him even more.

The big, dumb American was not supposed to be speaking their language.

Alright, maybe I was being a bit hard on the man, but I had very little patience for people who automatically assumed the worst about others with no real basis other than cultural belief and gossip. I got enough of that from the members of the White Council who assumed I was just a dark wizard bomb, waiting to explode and shatter all the laws of magic at a moment's notice. It didn't help that the officer had basically taken one look at me as I was looking over the directions to my destination and had immediately pulled me off the sidewalk to have a chat.

It's funny, but I didn't know 'chat' and 'interrogation' were interchangeable.

I sighed, for what must've been the fifth time in this conversation alone, and scratched the back of my head. "Look, I'm just trying to find a coworker's home to discuss a business transaction we're working on."

The officer crossed his arms. "A coworker, you say? Funny, I didn't know we had many foreign businesses in the neighborhood."

I bit my tongue at the caustic remark about to escape and swallowed it back. "It's an international firm. I'm from the central USA branch, and he's from Japan's." Well, that was true enough. Though I doubted most people would consider the world's magical government to be a business of any sort.

His eyes roamed over my duster. "Rather informal clothing for such a big-sounding firm."

"We love our casual Fridays," I said.

He set his jaw at that. Ha! Current score? Me: 1, Racist jerk: 0.

"Let me look at that address again."

I handed over the slip of paper with the safehouse's address. It's not like I was really trying to keep the place a secret. There was nothing special about the place; it was just a smallish, older apartment complex in the residential district. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it... Well, unless you counted the people who live there.

Though I doubt he could find a reason to arrest magic users beyond the whole, 'magic doesn't exist so some kind of fraud must be involved' idea.

The officer looked over the address meticulously, as if trying to will into existence some form of wrongdoing that he could pin on me, but unless he could spontaneously change the numbers and letters on the paper to some kind of launch code for a nuclear weapon he wasn't going to find anything. When he didn't discover evidence of nefarious intent, he reluctantly handed it back with an almost inaudible grumble.

"So..." I tried, I really did, but I couldn't help myself. A smirk made its way to my face and my tone took on a hint of a lilt. "Anything else I can do for you? Anything else you need to ask?"

I could almost hear his teeth grinding at the smug sound of my voice. "No, that will be all. Enjoy your stay here, and I hope your meeting goes as planned."

"Thank you very much. It was a _pleasure_ talking to you, officer." Before he could get the last word in, I spun around and walked off, my long gait quickly leaving him behind in the crowd of people.

"You seem rather pleased with yourself."

I jumped at the sudden voice and feeling of someone entwining an arm with mine. I instinctively turned to look where both had come from, and my self-satisfied countenance immediately began to slip. Where before there had been no one, there was now an extremely beautiful blond woman wearing a Greco-Roman toga and looking at me with an extremely amused cant to her eyes.

No, some random cosplayer had not just grabbed me out of the blue. What was currently holding onto me like it was the most natural thing in the world was much, _much _more terrible and insidious than that.

"What do you want, Lasciel?" I asked. The venom I put in her name could kill a basilisk.

She pursed her lips. On her face, it was more than a little cute, making her seem like the girl-next-door who had just been turned down for milkshakes. For anyone else, it would've been a natural reaction; for her, it was completely artificial. "Can I not just have a friendly conversation with you, my host?"

"Sorry," I said. "I'm all out of friendly when it comes to fallen angels trying to buy my soul."

Lasciel, aka The Seducer, aka The Temptress, aka The Webweaver, aka The Hallucination That Wouldn't Leave, was a bonafide, black-as-pitch, fallen-from-grace, end-of-days, former angel. One of the original that had rebelled against God and had been cast down as punishment, she was part of an organization of fallen angels known as the Order of the Blackened Denarius that were bound to thirty silver coins - possibly the very same coins which Judas Iscariot had betrayed the son of God for.

The Denarians were beings that sought to bond with human hosts in order to have an actual existence outside of a cut and imprinted piece of metal. The benefits were incredible, beyond human comprehension - ancient knowledge, functional immortality, improved physiology, supernatural powers, even the ability to transform into a literal hellspawn to rend your foes' flesh from bone.

The payment? Just a small, miniscule thing - a timeshare on your soul. For every boost you get, that timeshare grows... until you're more demon than man and your vacation is more lake of sulfur than the Bahamas.

I had come across the Denarians before, and it was not an event I wanted to relive. Their ultimate goal was to cause as much suffering and pain as possible, and as someone whose job is to fight against people like that, we didn't exactly get along that well. The fact that they had tortured me and then killed a man much better than I by using me as bait also failed to endear me to them much.

So why did I have a fallen angel taking up space in the vast, empty corridors of my brain? Well, it wasn't really all that intentional, and I hadn't quite reached the point where I'd sell my soul for a few impressive parlor tricks.

Being sneaky, backhanded, and all-together hateful bastards, the Denarians had tricked me into making contact with one of their silver soul prisons, the denarius. I'm sure I could have handled the situation better, but when you're faced with either you grabbing the hell-coin or letting the youngest son of your best friend do so, you tend not to think about consequences and snatch that sucker up before a very young, very innocent, very impressionable, and very _grabby_ kid does.

Of course, the first thing I did after that was bury the thing under several dozen pounds of concrete in my sub-cellar so that it would take a chisel, jackhammer, and five pounds of dynamite to unearth it. Unfortunately, the small bit of contact I had made was enough for the real Lasciel to photocopy a shadow of herself into my mind

Copy-Lasciel couldn't do much to me other than the classic Faustian temptation, but her ability to appear before me, create any illusion she wanted, see and hear what I did, and even dig into my memories didn't make it any easier to ignore the huge danger that she represented.

And then, of course, there was the knowledge that deep inside, I wanted what she was offering.

I'm only human. Lasciel promised untold power and knowledge, the ability to protect those close to me and make sure that nothing bad ever happened to them again. I would be a fool not to take advantage of any boon granted to me. Of course, every monster that I banished would end up taking residence in my soul, and I'd be damned (pun totally intended) if I was going to become that which I fought.

And then Lasciel made it even harder by appearing as one of the most drop-dead gorgeous babes I'd ever seen. She could appear as anything she wanted, but she chose a form that triggered the primordial ugga-ugga in me. The bitch.

I shook her arm off of mine. "Don't hold onto me like that in public; it's annoying. Besides, I'd thought we'd agreed you wouldn't pop up out of nowhere."

"My host, you're the one making a scene by shaking like you're having a seizure." She grabbed my arm again and looked up at me. "In case you've forgotten, no one can see or hear me but you."

"Great, so I'm talking to thin air, too. That's going to help these people think I'm less weird."

"Without me, you wouldn't even understand the snide comments they're saying about you," she said. "Is that not a point in my favor?"

Ok, so I have a bit of a confession to make. I'm not really, completely, totally, all the way fluent in Japanese. Honestly, I sound like a caveman and my accent is as thick as a cab driver's. The huge secret to my success was Lasciel. Her illusion powers did more than make me see whatever it was she wanted; it also made me hear and say whatever she wanted. If she wanted me to hear English when someone was talking not-English, I'd do so. If she wanted me to speak a foreign language when I couldn't even think it, she'd just cross some wires in the attic and _voila_ - instant universal translator.

Just one more perk in a long line of them, and Lasciel never failed to bring up what future prizes could be mine if I just opened up door number one. Do you see why so many others fell to temptation? It becomes hard after a while to resist ultimate power, especially when the person offering it is someone you'd take on a date instead of a black-armored villain with a breathing problem.

Still, if there was one thing I was famous (or infamous) for, it was being as stubborn as a pitbull. "It's not like I asked you to do that," I said warily. "I was perfectly alright learning my daughter's moon language at a leisurely and acceptable pace."

"But you wished for it to be easier," Lasciel countered. "And I exist to make life easier for you, my host. Anything you wish for, I will hand it to you."

"And all it takes is the low, low price of my soul?"

"I prefer to think of it as symbiosis. You provide my true self with something it desires, and you gain something in return."

I stopped. The small stream of people moved around me, sparing only a glance at the strange, absurdly tall gaijin who was parked in the middle of the street. I looked down at the fake angel, my eyes beginning to blaze with anger. "You know what else exists in symbiosis? A parasite. A creature that lives only to consume and then move on to the next host to consume again."

"A parasite can't offer you what I can," she smiled. "A way to protect your daughter."

I froze. I knew that Lasciel knew about Makoto; there was no way she couldn't have. Still, the idea that the bitch was trying to get on my good side by appealing to my parental love both froze and boiled my blood.

"Think about it," she continued, ignoring the stony look on my face. "There's no need to send her off into the care of another. With what I can give you, you never need worry about those that would harm her again. Any that threaten to would fall underneath your fury like wheat from the harvest."

"Don't you..."

"Don't what, mortal?" she asked, a sharp bite to her words. "Don't present you with a gift very few of your kind will ever have? Don't grant you the power needed to make sure that those beloved by you will never be harmed again?" Her grip tightened on my arm. "I know what you want, deep down, much deeper than you want to admit. You're afraid, afraid of what can be done to the ones close to you because of what you yourself have done in turn."

Her words, while infuriating, were true. I had made a fair amount of enemies in my life, and there were more than a few times that people were harmed simply because they knew me.

Sensing my resolve weakening, Lasciel pushed on. "You know what I offer. Everlasting life, eternal power, the chance to never again worry about the pitiful fools that hound you. Your precious ones will forever be under your wing, and thus will never want again." She smiled, the sweetest thing I'd ever seen, as thick as honey, and as venomous as a viper. "All it would take is for you to take up the coin and proclaim the covenant. Nothing more...and nothing less."

It would be so easy to agree. So easy... it'd be a sin.

I wrenched my arm away, not caring that I would look like a freak to those around me. Frankly, I wished that Lasciel really was solid, if only so I could strike her, my feelings about hitting women be damned. She'd brought up my inadequacies, my inferiorities, and my inabilities. She'd shown how I could be a far better shield for Makoto than I was now. She'd promised everything I'd ever wanted or could ever want...and I hated her for it.

"I can't do much to you considering you're pretty much melded to my brain, but I'm sure I can find a deep, dark hole to throw you in until I can come up with something worse."

An adorable pout appeared on her face. "Really, my host, there's no need for such threats. You should know I'm only trying to help."

"A really deep pit, with lions and tigers and bears."

"Oh my." Lasciel crossed her arms. "Very well, I suppose it would be best to let you think on my proposal. You know where to find me should you wish to discuss this matter further."

And just as suddenly as she'd appeared, she was gone. Hell's bells, that never stopped being creepy. Though really, what else could it be when you had a shadow of a literal pseudo-deity renting out your mindscape?

I shook my head. Now wasn't the time to dwell on matters like that. Right now, I had to go meet with the Japanese regional warden and hammer out all the details for Makoto's stay before I returned to Chicago. I couldn't leave the place in Ramirez's hands for too long. He was a good kid, but I owed him enough beer as it was.

Setting off, it was another hour or so before I finally navigated the maze that was Azabu-Juuban's street system and arrived at the White Council's safehouse. It looked like just what I expected it to be - a simple and somewhat ramshackle mansion that looked like it had been built back in the 80s. The rest of the neighborhood fit the same motif, so it was camouflaged extremely well and could easily be looked over by any wandering eyes. The building was three stories tall and vaguely cube-shaped, with a single wing extending towards the back. The front garden was well-cared for, with an iron gate connecting the stone walls that wrapped around the property.

As I placed my hand on the gate, a small thrum of power went through my body. So, they'd placed a small ward on the area, did they? It wasn't anything big, simply an early-alert system that would warn anyone inside that someone was entering the premises - the magical equivalent of a doorbell. It was extremely basic, but it was also simple enough to make maintenance easy.

Still, it meant that whoever was expecting me now knew I'd arrived. At least I wouldn't have to wait that long at the door. Crossing the yard, I approached the door and knocked on it, not seeing any doorbell. Almost immediately after doing so, the door swung inward, revealing a young woman.

She was probably in her early-twenties. She had black hair, pale skin, and was what the locals referred to as 'fox-faced' - narrow face with close-set eyes, thin eyebrows, and high cheekbones. That particular look was considered to be aesthetically pleasing to the Japanese, though I preferred my women to have a rounder face. Funnily enough, that kind of look was originally thought to only belong to women that were actually kitsune, or mystical fox creatures, pretending to be human in disguise so that they could fool or seduce people. In actual fact, that wasn't too far off from the truth - kitsune were apparently youkai, the eastern equivalent of the fae, and the look was an inherited trait from unions between youkai and humans - changelings, if you would. The girl probably had some youkai blood in her from some distant ancestor.

Her long hair was done up in an ornate bun, with a variety of hairpins in the shape of a fan keeping the whole thing together. She was wearing that weird, wraparound dress the Japanese were so fond of, though it was too fancy for a yukata and too plain for a kimono. I didn't know what this variety was called, and I was proud enough just to know the difference between the two I mentioned.

The girl looked at me with an emotionless expression, her closed eyes enhancing the effect. "You would be Sir Dresden, yes?" Her monotone voice added to the stony visage.

I smiled and gave a polite bow. "Indeed I am. I'm guessing I'm easy to recognize?"

"Sir Arashimaru gave me a description," she said. She glanced me up and down. "He did not quite fully describe just how tall you are."

"That's us Americans, we like things big and bulky."

Her expression didn't change at all at my joke. Ouch, tough crowd. After a moment, she spoke again, "Indeed. Oh, but where are my manners? I have been informed of you, Sir Dresden, but not you of me." She gave a bow back, deeper than my first one. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Tamako Mae, the proprietress of this establishment."

"Charmed."

She nodded back. "Please, come in. I will retrieve Sir Arashimaru for you. He has been awaiting your arrival."

Opening the door wider, she beckoned me forth. I took a step in and found the invisible force of a threshold parting around me before it snapped back into place. Huh, that was strange. Thresholds were spiritual barriers, and were the main line of defense to stop supernatural creatures from just invading people's homes; if they could even pass through it in the first place, a large chunk of any invader's power would be left behind if they weren't specifically invited past it, like a magical filter. However, thresholds weren't something you could just create - they were natural collections of will built up in areas that were considered to be a safe home - the saying 'a man's home is his castle' applied literally in this regard. I didn't expect to find a threshold, even one as weak as this, to be somewhere that people used as a place of business. Still, it only added to my approval of the safehouse. Any extra protection for Makoto was good.

Tamako led me to a communal kitchen, explaining that she would go get the warden. Disappearing quickly around the corner, I was left to my own devices. I took the time to look around, examining the room. It wasn't anything fancy, but I was happy to note that every appliance and storage unit was pre-Industrial era; there wasn't going to be anything frying in this place anytime soon. In fact...

I stepped over to the stove. Holy crud, this was a traditional firepit. It wasn't even made of metal, but was carved out of stone and clay. Around the stove were a variety of clay pots, and I resisted the urge to snoop further. If my knowledge of traditional Japanese cooking was accurate (and what I knew was only thanks to Makoto drilling it into my head when she became the de facto family chef), they were probably full of the classic ingredients - miso, salt, sugar, rice, pickles, and the like.

Satisfied with my amateur investigation, I turned around and nearly jumped out of my skin. Tamako was standing not even three feet away, her stoic gaze locked on to me. I let out a wheezy laugh. "Stars and stones, you startled me."

"You seemed preoccupied, so I did not want to disturb you, sir." Ok, the whole blank-face shtick was starting to get creepy now. "I informed Sir Arashimaru, and he said he'd be down to speak with you in a short while."

"Oh, that's good... good." I trailed off. It was people like Tamako who I had the hardest time dealing with. I was used to individuals that were larger than life and had the emotional spectrum of the rainbow. Talking with someone who had less an emotional rainbow and more an emotional block of graphite threw me off-balance.

"Ah." I refocused on her. "Forgive my rudeness again, Sir Dresden. I did not offer you any refreshments while you waited."

I waved her off. "Don't worry about it. I'm not particularly in the mood for anything."

"That will not do," she said. Her voice held a bit more force than before. A little color bled in. "As the hostess, it is improper to not at least attempt to make you feel comfortable. Please, allow me to serve you something."

Ah, so she was the kind pf person who stood at salute and hated anything that was out of protocol. Heh, well, it was nice to see some form of personality. Now, if she'd only smile, her looks would blow any Average Joe out of the water. "Well, if you insist."

She nodded. "Thank you."

There was a small clattering and I turned to see the icebox in the corner had opened. I raised an eyebrow when a single can of soda floated out and over to me, settling next to my hand. There was a hiss of escaped carbonation as the pop-tab flicked open.

I picked up the can, examining it briefly before taking a sip. The sweet taste of coke flooded my mouth. I smirked. "Looks like I've been researched."

"It is only proper for a hostess to know ahead of time what her guests would enjoy. I asked Sir Arashimaru, and he said that you had a penchant for this beverage."

Was my appreciation for the drink really that widespread? Well, I did give it to my cat and dog as a common substitute for water, but that was beside the point. I raised the can in mock salute. "I give your sources thanks."

Tamako bowed and stood in place, watching me as I sipped on the drink. I pretended to ignore her while I enjoyed it.

It was a bit odd how she'd gone out of her way to show her abilities. Kinetomancy, if I wasn't mistaken. One that was very low on the power scale; I saw how the can wavered around in her magical grasp. That small amount of weight was probably the limit of what she could carry. However, what she lacked in power she made up for in control; evocation being of the 'wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am' branch of magic, not many could carefully levitate an item of that size without turning it into a projectile weapon by accident.

Thomas still didn't think my response to his 'toss it here' request was all that hilarious.

More important than the what and how, though, was the why. Most magic users tended to avoid using their powers unless it was absolutely necessary or because they thought it would advance their standing (for your information, the latter usually ended up badly - like under the silver blade badly). Tamako using her powers just to get a can of coke seemed at odds with what little personality I had managed to glean from her.

I mentally shrugged. Tamako didn't seem like the type of power-hungry person I had come across. Maybe she had done it to prove to me that Makoto would be that much safer here. She did take her position as runner of this place very seriously.

It wasn't long before the person who I'd come to see walked in. Yamato Arashimaru was also a young man, in his early-to-mid twenties, with short, black hair, kind eyes, and an average Japanese build. Like most of the wardens, his youth was attributed to the ongoing, full-scale war we had going on with the Red Court; a lot of ours had been killed-in-action, so conscription rates had gone through the roof and they were shoved into whatever positions they could fill.

Hell, I, the black sheep of the organization, was actually given regional command of central USA last Halloween, and one of the people who offered it hated my guts with the kind of passion usually only seen in religious fundamentalists.

Yeah, the situation was that bad.

Arashimaru, however, had a much brighter slate when he was offered the job - for both his abilities and his accomplishments. The closest I could approximate his powers to was that of a 'weather mage.' His specializations were air and water, and combinations thereof. Like Tamako, his power levels were on the low-end, especially compared to magical brutes like myself, but his control over his magic was nothing to sneeze at. He might not have been able to summon huge gales of wind or shoot high-pressure water spouts, but the man could create actual clouds, mini-tornados, and even alter weather conditions entirely if he had enough time and preparation.

Never underestimate a man who could turn your fun summer relaxation into a hellish landscape of rain and lightning at a moment's notice.

While his magic was held in high regard, it was what he'd done without it that really clinched the role of Japan's regional commander for him. He'd done what no one else had - made contact with the secretive Jade Court. Of course, he'd only met with peons, the lowest rung of their society, but the fact that he'd reached out to them and they responded at all was a miracle in and of itself. Thanks to him, there was finally verification of their existence beyond rumors and fifth-hand information.

It would take a while for any real cooperation between the Jades and Council to come into being, but any little bit helped, and the chance to have an ally against the Reds was too valuable for words.

Arashimaru smiled widely when he saw me and walked over, grabbing my hand and giving it an energetic shake. "Warden Dresden, it's a pleasure to meet you again."

I returned the shake as heartily as I could. "You too, Warden Arashimaru."

He grinned again. The man had a face that would blend into any crowd, but his smile lit up the room like the sun. It was the kind of open, honest smile I could appreciate. "Well, we have a lot to discuss and hopefully enough time to do so." He released my hand and looked over at Tamako. "Tamako, you're excused if there's anything else you wanted to do."

"As you wish, Sir Arashimaru." She bowed one last time and ghosted out of the room, her feet making no sound as she left.

Arashimaru moved back to me. "Well then, Dresden, shall we begin the tour?"

"Lead the way."

And so he did, giving me a detailed tour of the entire building. It had separate rooms for each of the boarders, but used a communal format for the kitchen, bath, toilet, and recreational and dining quarters. From what he told me, the history of the building was quite old, ranging all the way back into the Meiji era. It was originally an inn that had been gradually converted over time, and had been in Tamako's family since it was first constructed, which finally explained why the place had a threshold, limited though it may be.

"Yes, Tamako's family had been running the place for a long time now. She's been born and raised to run it ever since she was a child, and I'm guessing she plans on teaching her own children to keep running it for a long time after."

"So you've been living here a while then?"

"For the last several years," he said. "I helped Tamako out when I was younger and she repaid the debt by letting me live here, and I eventually set it up as a base for the council." He shrugged. "We've had a few council members and wardens rotate in and out over the years, but it's mostly been the two of us."

"She seems like the kind of person who wields formality like a weapon, so I'm surprised she just let you convert it into a magical fortress."

Arashimaru laughed. "Believe me, it was no easy task to convince her, but I think she understood just what it meant to have a safe place to return to. She's been running the place ever since her parents retired to Kyoto, so I think she knows exactly what it means to have a haven."

The corners of my mouth quirked up at the fond hint to his voice. "You two get along well."

If he heard the teasing tone in my voice, he either ignored it or was too oblivious to recognize what it meant. "She's a good girl. She confuses a lot of people by not showing her emotions that well, but once you get to know her she can be quite kind. She'll be a positive influence on your daughter, I promise."

"Makoto could certainly use some of Tamako's properness rubbing off on her. The girl takes much too after me for her own good."

A small chuckle escaped from Arashimaru's mouth. "Indeed. Well, I'm sure we can hammer some old fashioned Japanese politeness into your daughter." We both had a laugh at that. Arashimaru cleared his throat before continuing. "In any case, what is your evaluation of the place, Dresden? Does it come up to code?"

I gave it a brief moment's thought. The place looked safe and protected enough. There were a variety of small-time wards planted all over the place; nothing close to the defensive strength of the ones I had back home, but the amount and variety made up for that. The mansion wasn't designed to withstand a zombie horde (no, I won't get into that now), but it did have enough support to warn and protect those inside from minor danger.

If moving halfway across the world and residing in the boogieman's backyard didn't deter lurkers, I doubted having the magical equivalent of a ballista looking you right in the face would. Insane tended to not take that kind of thing into consideration.

"What about the threshold? I noticed there was one, but it's not exactly up to snuff."

"You have no need to worry about that," Arashimaru said. "The main threshold may be weak but the ones for each individual room are much stronger. If need be, your daughter can take refuge in Tamako's or my room until the danger passes."

That made sense. The communal and professional aspect of the whole building would reduce the efficacy of the main threshold, but the personal ones should be more powerful in comparison. Still, wouldn't hurt to check. "You don't mind if I...?"

"Not at all. Please, come with me." He led me to a room in the rear of the first floor. "This is the manager's room. It belongs to Tamako, so it should be the stronger one." He rapped his knuckles on the side of the doorframe, careful not to rip the rice-paper of the sliding door.

A moment passed before it slid open, revealing Tamako. "Oh, Sir Arashimaru, Sir Dresden, what can I do for you?"

"Warden Dresden was just asking about the personal thresholds, so I came to ask if he could test yours in case his daughter needed to hide here."

"Of course. Sir Dresden?" She turned to the side and moved backwards to let me in.

I nodded in thanks and took a step in. Immediately it felt like I was walking through cellophane or the icky skin left on jello and pudding, and I could sense a good portion of my magic power being left behind. This threshold was tens of times stronger than the one on the main entrance and would undoubtedly stop any malcontent trying to force their way in in their tracks. Satisfied with what I found, I stepped back out of the doorframe, the feeling of pressure all over my body retreating as I did.

I turned to Arashimaru. "That's perfect. Thank you." I turned to Tamako. "You, too, Tamako. That just took a lot off of my shoulders."

"I'm glad to be of help, sir." With that, she bowed to the both of us and slid the door shut, leaving me and Arashimaru back to our devices.

Arashimaru beckoned me to follow and we made our way back to the main entrance. "So, I assume everything is in order now?"

"Yeah, everything's good. Thank you again for offering your help. I was on my last leg trying to find a safe place for Makoto to stay while things died down back home."

"It's no problem at all. Any fellow members of the White Council, let alone Wardens, should help each other in their times of need."

"Well, thanks all the same," I reiterated.

We made final checks on the agreement. Makoto would stay in the place for the next school year and then return back home after that. I would stay around for the next couple of days while she settled in and then go back home to resume my duties as regional commander. I couldn't stay that long, after all; Chicago seemed to be attracting a frightening frequency of magical disasters and insane supernatural creatures and warlocks over the last several years. Even without my assistance, things were bound erupt in flames before too long, and I didn't want Murphy, Thomas, Michael, or the rest to be holding the short end of the stick while I was off gallivanting around in a foreign country.

Repeating my thanks, I said goodbye to Arashimaru and left the safehouse. I had checked the clock before I left and saw it was shortly after noon. Considering today was a Saturday, that should mean that school only had a half-day. Leave it to the Japanese to hold school on the weekend and then only make it partially open so as not to cause a mutiny. Might as well swing by Makoto's school and embarrass her by picking her up. Payback for how we left that morning.

Whistling a jaunty tune, I walked out of the yard and towards where I knew Makoto's school to be. However, it wasn't long before I heard someone coughing to get my attention. Turning towards the sound, I saw another police officer coming towards me to ask me some 'questions'.

Stars and stones, _really?_

* * *

"So, Mako, is it really true that your dad's a wizard?"

"Yup, name in the yellow pages and everything."

"...the what?"

"Um... paper Google?"

"Oh! ...neat?"

"Yeah, that's what most people say when they hear about it." I gave a dramatic sigh and hung my head. "My papa's a bit of a technophobe, so things like the internet are kinda out of his comfort zone." Well, mine too, but I wasn't about to get into that. "But besides that, you're really not all that skeptical about me claiming papa's a wizard? Most people just kinda give me a funny look and pat me on the head like I ate paste as a kid."

"Why wouldn't I believe you?" Usagi asked innocently. "I mean, even I'm a-I mean, why wouldn't your dad be a wizard? I'm sure lots of people can do magic if they tried!" She put a hand behind her head and broke out into a fit of uncomfortable laughter.

My eyebrow arched. "Suuurree..."

Fun fact: Usagi is a _horrible_ liar. The girl has two modes when it comes to lying - blurt something out and then backtrack, or awkwardly try to change the topic and fail hilariously. I had only known her for a couple hours and she'd slipped enough times that it didn't even take my magic radar to pick up that she was a magic user.

Yeah, the electro radar I have? It doubles as a magic one as well. The limitations still apply - I have to be close enough to the person and focused on them for it to work, but unlike papa, who needs to touch a person to see if they're magical if they're not actively channeling, I can 'sense' the overall power and type of my target.

Usagi was low on the totem pole - a minor talent probably. Her power was a bit different from what I'd seen before, being focused in a small node near her heart while most people had their power spread throughout their entire body, but the intensity of that node wasn't all that impressive compared to papa's aura or even my own.

Also, with all the random occurrences I'd heard that happened in Azabu-Juuban recently, most courtesy of Usagi's babbling, the neighborhood seemed like a hotspot for supernatural activity. So I'd be right at home here, then. Could probably get some good ol' fashioned superheroing in if I could dodge my new guardians' watchful eyes.

Shaking those thoughts off, I looked at Usagi. We were walking out to the school's front entrance, class having let out early for the day. It was going to take some time getting used to going to school on Saturdays again, especially when the blessed lax American education had spoiled me so, but I think I could survive if we left so early in the day. And I think it would be that much easier with a friend like Usagi at my side.

At least my first thoughts hadn't been wrong when I assumed that Usagi was the kind who didn't let go of something that interested her. The girl had quite literally tackled me as soon as the bell rang and dragged me out of class, babbling about everything and nothing the entire way. I almost considered checking the girl to see if she had a slot for the nuclear-powered battery she had to be running on.

I briefly mused on whether or not I should tell Usagi I could use magic as well, but decided to hold off until she was more comfortable with talking about her abilities. When I didn't hear Usagi respond, I looked to see that she was staring at me and realized I'd drifted off in thought again. Dang it, I had to stop doing that! I was turning into an internal monologuer! The _worst_ kind!

"Well, dad may advertise and everything, but he's not exactly all that huge. He mostly just acts as a private eye, finding stuff for people." That's right, downplay papa's awesomeness so that when she _does_ see him work, she'll be blown away by it all.

"No, I'm sure your dad's awesome! _My_ daddy is just an editor at some paper, so he doesn't really do anything that exciting."

"Hey, you turned out to be pretty nice, so I'm sure he does an alright job."

Usagi paused, blushed, and giggled in embarrassment. Eenngh! My heart! The cuteness overload! I resisted the urge to grab at my chest with dramatic flair, and in my hesitation she twirled around and pumped her fists. "Oh! Right! You have to meet the rest of my friends! Ami's really smart and Rei's a bit of a meanie but she's kinda cool, too! I'm sure they'd love to meet you!"

I smiled at her boundless enthusiasm. "That sounds like fun. I'd like to meet them, too."

"Really?" She squealed and put her fists underneath her chin in a gesture I thought was reserved only for shoujo heroines. "I'm meeting them at the arcade today. You should totally come with me!"

"Um, the arcade?"

Usagi's face fell. No! Not the puppy-dog eyes! Not after the cuteness beam! My heart was going to implode! "You don't like the arcade?"

Visions of arcade boxes exploding and yen coins showering down like painful confetti dashed through my head. This was soon followed by people trying to flee the ruins of a once glorious and renowned game center, now turned into a burnt-out husk of its former self. A great disturbance was felt by all, as if millions of video game characters cried out and were suddenly silenced.

"Not really my thing," I said. "Too much noise and flashy lights. I prefer a more quiet atmosphere, ya know?" Bullshit, thy name is Makoto!

"Oh, that's too bad." Usagi seemed a little downtrodden but perked up after a moment. "But maybe some other time?"

"Sure, that sounds great." I thought for a bit and then said, "Actually, you said your friend Ami's kinda smart, right?"

The mention of her friend brought Usagi's glee reserves back up to full capacity. "The smartest! She ranked number one on the practice exams for middle-schoolers last year!"

"For the city?"

"For the whole _country!_"

I whistled. "Impressive. Is she any good at kanji?"

"Uh-huh!" She nodded her head with all the ferocity of a bobble-head toy. "She helps tutor me all the time!"

"Think she can help me out, too, then?" I laughed weakly and scratched my cheek in embarrassment. "Living in America has gotten my kanji skills a bit rusty. I barely recognized half the ones used in class today."

"Oh, that's fine," Usagi said, waving a hand at me. "I can barely recognize half of those kanji on my _best_ day!" We have a bubbly ditz for the win here folks. "But I'm sure Ami can help you out. I'll even help figure out when we can all get together for a study session!"

"Sounds like a date," I nodded.

Usagi popped a foot and gave a small cry of glee before swinging her head to look at something ahead of us. She shrank down upon herself and zipped behind me to hide. Confused by her sudden attitude change, I looked to see what the commotion was. My eyes widened at the sight.

The guidance counselor, a big, beefy man who wore a track suit similar to my own and wielded a bamboo sword was shaking said weapon in an even taller man's face. From the teacher's body language, I could tell he was trying to intimidate the taller man. From the other's look of exasperation, I could tell he was having none of that.

Typical.

"Mako, maybe we should hurry by while Mr. Jougyuu is distracting that man. I've never seen him before and, I mean, he's foreign, too! Why would someone like that be at our school?"

The grin on my face would've made a shark jealous. "Nah, he's nothing big. Guys like that are full of hot air and total softies when the chips are down. Here, I'll show you."

"Mako, wait-" Usagi's protestations trailed off as I stomped off to face off against the intruder.

Well, not so much 'stomping' as flat-out running, and not so much 'facing off against' as a running tackle that nearly swept the man off his feet. "Papa!"

"Oof, dang it, kiddo, did you gain weight since I last saw you? I think you bruised a rib with that."

I slugged him in the arm. "Papa, how could you speak to a lady like that?"

"I'll tell you when I see one."

I gasped in mock shock. The guidance counselor, Mr. Jougyuu, looked at me with a questioning glance. "Do you know this guy, transfer student?" Yup, I was just known as 'the mysterious transfer student' to the faculty. Had to change that soon - maybe 'ultimate transfer hero?' ...okay, so it was a work in progress.

"This is my papa," I explained. "Sorry, was he bothering you? I try to keep him on a leash but he just keeps chewing through the darn things."

There was a throaty chuckle as a large, calloused hand placed itself on my head and began to roughly tousle my hair. "What my daughter is _trying_ to say is that I was just waiting for her to finish school so that I could escort her home." He grinned, showing his teeth. "Well, that was _before_ you tried to chase me off with that wooden stick, anyway."

Mr. Jougyuu frowned. "You're a foreigner. Forgive me if I don't believe you when you say you have a child that comes here."

With a synchronized sigh and proclamation of, "I'm/She's adopted," the teacher went back to pretending he was ignoring us while shooting the occasional glance our way as he watched the other students leave the premises, all of them being careful to edge their way around the two of us.

"Umm...Mako?" I was broken from my fun by the somewhat timid voice of Usagi. She was looking between me and papa with a guarded but interested expression on her face. "Is this your dad? The one you were talking about?"

Papa looked at Usagi, then at me, and then at Usagi again. "Kiddo, you made a friend? Why didn't you tell me? Wait..." He leaned forward, not even close to putting himself on eye level with the blonde. It was then I noticed just how _tall_ papa really was compared to most other people, especially others my age. The top of my head barely cleared papa's sternum, and Usagi could easily tuck her head underneath my chin. Comparing the two was like putting King Kong next to his unwilling love interest.

Papa was _much_ less civilized than a giant ape, though.

"Tell me right now, did she kidnap you? You don't seem like the type of girl my daughter hangs around with. You're much more the type who gets mugged instead of doing the mugging." Ouch, papa, right in the heart. "Quick! Blink twice if you're being held against your will!"

Usagi just stood ramrod straight at his sudden order.

Papa stroked his chin. "Ok, so either you're here of your own free will or you're blinking so quickly you look like you're not blinking at all. Let's try again. The safe word is 'peaches'."

I slugged papa again in the same spot I'd hit before. He winced and rubbed at it. Good, maybe it'd leave bruises. "Papa, stop scaring my new friend."

He grinned. "Payback for what you did before."

"Then I'll just retaliate in turn."

"My dear, I have only begun to fight."

We were almost nose-to-nose when snort-giggling broke us out of our faceoff. We both turned to face Usagi, who was blushing and holding a hand to her mouth at her unladylike behavior. When she saw were both focused on her, she smiled cheekily. "You're odd," she said to papa. "But the funny type of odd!" she waved off. "And so tall!" Usagi leaned forward and placed her hands underneath her chin.

"I ate my vegetables as a kid," papa said flatly.

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Please, the only green things you ate before I started feeding you were gummi bears and bread mold."

"They had all the nutrients a growing boy like me needs!" he responded in indignation. "I'll have you know green mold is especially medicinal."

"That's blue mold, and it's penicillin."

Papa paused. "Oh, so that would explain the hand-powered stomach pump Charity got for me my last birthday."

Usagi laughed again, much louder and more freely this time. "There's no way you two aren't related. You're both so funny, and you look exactly alike!"

"Oh, please don't say that," papa begged. "I don't need an amazon for a daughter. I have enough trouble with her, I don't need her lassoing supervillains off the street."

"Darn it, papa! Stop embarrassing me!"

"Papa's prerogative," he teased, ruffling my hair again. He pulled his hand away from my attempt to slap it and returned it to his side. "Anyway, I just came to pick her up and take her to a meal as a reward for surviving her first day in Japan's public education. You're welcome to join us if you wish, Ms...?" He offered a hand to her.

"Oh! I'm Usagi Tsukino! Pleased to meet you." She took his hand and gave it an enthusiastic shake.

"Harry Dresden. Now, would you like to join us, Usagi? I'd be happy to shell out a bit more if my daughter's friend wants to hang out for a bit. I saw a few good cafes on the way here."

"Actually, papa, Usagi said she was meeting some friends and-"

"Food? Sure! I'll come! Lead the way!"

Papa looked at Usagi's bouncing form, a trickle of drool trailing down her chin, and then at me. "You were saying?" His eyebrow was quirked ever so slightly. I sighed. Usagi's appetite to the rescue, it seemed.

Papa took that as my agreement and the three of us walked out into the street and into downtown Juuban. As we walked, Usagi attacked papa with a barrage of questions, all having to do with either magic (which he looked at me with a wry eye for) or what I was like as a kid (which he gladly provided any and all humiliating childhood stories for.) After a short time, we finally arrived at a small cafe on street level a couple blocks from the arcade Usagi had mentioned going to at her suggestion.

The waitress seated us and quickly took our orders - papa had a coke float; I, a selection from the place's cake set; and Usagi, a jumbo parfait. I noticed papa wince a bit at the prices, but he took it all in manly stride. We continued our conversation until the food arrived, and both papa and my eyes bulged out at the size and complexity of Usagi's parfait. It looked like the desert cart had exploded over the ice cream bar and then drizzled a confectioner's workshop on top. The sugar content alone made the back of my mouth sour.

Usagi tore into the mammoth treat like a voracious beast. Oh heavens, it was like watching an anaconda swallow a suckling pig! Papa diverted his glance from the havoc in front of him.

"Stars and stones, little lady, didn't you just eat lunch? Where are you putting it all?"

Usagi licked her lips clean of cream and smiled brightly. "Oh, didn't you know? Girls have a second stomach for dessert!"

Papa looked at her incredulously, and then at me. "You do? Why didn't you tell me this? Five years of living with a female and I'm still finding out new things! This is why men can't figure you women out - you're an entirely separate species!"

I rolled my eyes and took a bite of my tiramisu. "You dork."

A series of beeps broke our jovial conversation. Usagi glanced up at us and then down at her schoolbag. Pulling out a small compact, she flipped it open before stiffening and looked back at us. She let out a fake laugh. "Uh, if you'll excuse me, I have to go tinkle!" With that announcement, she zoomed out of her seat and into the cafe's bathroom.

Papa blinked. "First time I've heard someone use a euphemism for powdering their nose. Although..." He laughed at my cross look. "Alright, alright, uncle, uncle."

"Uncle Tom has nothing to do with this," I pouted. He shrugged his shoulders and took a noisy sip of his float. "But it's a good thing she's gone, there's something I wanted to talk to you about." He raised an eyebrow and took another noisy sip. I frowned and yanked the straw out of his mouth. He laughed. I gave a helpless smirk. "I think you probably already know this, but I'm pretty sure Usagi can use magic."

"You mean like how she pretty much went along with all the things I said about me being a wizard?" papa asked rhetorically. I nodded. "Yeah, shaking her hand pretty much clinched that. Got a nice static cling from her. Nothing too powerful, but it's there, and powerful enough that she should be aware of it."

I idly poked at my cake. "Soo...I was maybe thinking... I could tell her I use magic, too."

Papa stared at me for a good several seconds, and I began to fidget anxiously underneath it. Finally he let up and gave a resigned smile. "Fine, just don't push her too hard to reveal it if she doesn't want to." He flicked some droplets of condensation from his glass at my nose. "And try not to rope her into any hero shenanigans while you're at it."

"No promises," I said sternly. He rolled his eyes and I giggled.

It wasn't long before Usagi returned, straightening out her skirt. She gave an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I kinda got stuck talking to my friends. You know, the ones I mentioned to you?"

"I thought you went to go tinkle?" I looked at papa with an open-mouthed gape of horror, and Usagi responded by getting more flustered and started to stammer.

"Uh... I did! But then, uh, my friends called and I had to answer!"

"In the toilet? I still don't get you women." I pinched papa's arm and he relented, holding his hands up in submission.

"Ignore papa. For all his dashing good looks, his social skills leave much to be desired. So, were they worried about you? We did just sort of spirit you away without you being able to tell them anything."

"Oh, don't worry," Usagi chirped. Her flush had lessened, but there was still a rosy tint to her cheeks. "This kind of stuff happens _all_ the time! Rei says if I didn't have my head screwed on, I'd lose it!"

Now _that_ I could believe. "So, what was it about?"

"Oh, nothing big, just this side-job the three of us have."

Papa leaned forward. "Really? I'm surprised they'd let girls your age work. What kind of job is it?"

Usagi's eyes widened and her stammer came back in full force. "Oh! You know! Nothing big! Just this little thing. Y'know, the kinda job where you fix dem-I mean, mon-I mean, things! Yeah, that kind of job! Ahahaha..." And cue the awkward, forced laughter!

Papa was obviously about to push further, and I had to admit I was curious about just what Usagi was so adamantly trying to hide, myself. But his investigation was interrupted by a distraction in the form of an obviously magical cat.

Story of my life.

* * *

How the heck did a cat just wander into a bustling cafe with either no one noticing or no one caring? I smell tomfoolery afoot! No, but really, there were red flags for supernatural origins written all over the feline that had just jumped into Usagi's lap and started pawing at her outfit with a necessity that triggered all the 'problems abound' switches in my brain.

"So, who's your friend?" I asked.

The cat jumped at my voice and turned around slowly, as if just realizing there were others beside the girl in the booth with it. It gave me one brief, almost instantaneous worried glance before its features relaxed and a film of dumb animal intelligence wrapped over its face. Which was another black mark on its behalf; cats are not nearly as dumb as _it_ attempted to look. Live with a feline like Mister and you begin to see that.

This cat was not nearly as...hearty as the master of my household, being of a more natural size. Its coat was a luxurious and silky shade of black, looking almost bluish in the light, and there was a bald spot in the shape of a crescent moon on its forehead, the curved edge facing downward.

Usagi was shaken from her surprise and grasped at the first straw in front of her (or first cat, as it were.) "Oh, her! This is Luna!" She picked the cat up and presented to us. Yup, that was definitely a girl cat. There was another short, human look of exasperation on the cat's face at its disgraceful position before it slipped back into its feigned role.

My daughter took the whole ordeal in much better stride. Then again, she always dealt with magical-girlish situation with a handful more glee than I ever did. "Oh, she's adorable!" She leaned over and scratched the cat under her chin. Luna meowed in appreciation, her eyes closing and her body going limp. "Mister would just _eat_ you up if he ever saw you!"

"Our cat back home," I explained at Usagi's confused expression. She lit up. "She means that both ways, actually. The dwindling local dog population is a problem we're trying to deal with but are failing miserably at."

"He's joking," Makoto assured Usagi, her stricken face spelling out her feelings on that. "I think." Makoto forged on ahead when Usagi's expression began to slip back. "So, where'd you find her? Never figured you for much of a cat person."

"Oh, some little kids were picking on her and I rescued her. We've been together ever since. The two of us meeting was almost fate, like magic!" She yelped when Luna accidentally scratched her arm with one of her rear claws as the cat tried to escape and find a more comfortable position.

...ok, I don't know whether or not she was feigning her innocence and sheer, palatable stupidity, but if she wasn't, I was objectively terrified for the girl. People with that complete lack of survival and lying skills got gobbled up back in Chicago. Still, I was growing less and less worried about what kind of potential danger the cat might pose. Judging from its attitude and the way Usagi treated it, it was probably some sort of bonded animal.

Usagi's skills most likely revolved around animal empathy, and the cat apparently resonated closely with her. Heck, it wouldn't be the first time I came across animals with a surprising amount of human-like intelligence. Mouse was a temple dog, supposedly with Foo Dog ancestry. At times he easily surpassed my pitiful amount of common sense and wisdom, and he had several supernatural abilities that put him far outside the range of any normal breed. Usagi's cat was probably something along the same lines.

Makoto and Usagi cooed and giggled over Luna's animal antics, and I settled into a lethargic state. This was good. Only one day into Makoto's move and she'd already made a friend, and with someone she could connect to at that. I never thought it would be easy to raise a fledging magic user, but I doubted I fully took into account the social upbringing needed for a young girl who could shoot lightning from her hands.

My musings ended when Luna proceeded to flip the hell out, pawing at Usagi even more intensely then she had before. Usagi held the cat down, asking what was wrong, but it refused to say or do more than meow frantically and jab to the side. I looked over and saw a young man collapse into the booth next to us. He seemed pretty normal, the only thing different being the backwards baseball cap and slightly askew pair of glasses on his face.

True, he seemed to be wheezing and was occasionally grasping at his chest, but for all I knew he could have just sprinted here. He did look a little sweaty and out of breath.

"Luna, what is wrong with you?" Usagi asked in exasperation.

I took a quick look at the cat, trying to figure out on my own the reason behind its sudden shift in behavior, and then back at the young man. He sighed deeply, placing his elbow on the table to rest. Still a bit shaken, his elbow slipped and he pushed the ashtray on the table off. I awaited the inevitable sound of shattering ceramics, but it never came.

Instead, my magic senses flared minutely and I noticed the ashtray suddenly wobble and decelerate long enough for the boy to grab it and place it on the table. He looked around, seeing if anyone had caught him in the act, and nearly fell out of his seat upon locking eyes with me. He froze at my gaze, then slowly pushed his glasses back up his nose, scootched further into the booth, and started to ignore me.

I acted in kind. Another weak kinetomancer, though even weaker and less skilled than Tamako had been. I had the feeling that even the ashtray had been straining him. Well, at least that partially explained why Luna had been freaking out. She was likely reacting to the man's use of magic. Odd that she hadn't had such an over-the-top reaction to either me or Makoto, but sensing passive magical ability was much harder to do than when it was actually in use.

Like right now. Another ping went off and I turned to see what the boy was doing, but stopped in my tracks when a person who had definitely not been there before, or even in the cafe at all, was looming over the kid.

"Sorry, child," the individual said, his (I think it was a he) voice oozing with pompous superiority. "But I believe our game of cat and mouse is at an end, and it's time to take what's mine."

Wow, that wasn't ominous at all. Even less ominous was the blast of force that erupted from the man's outstretched hand and knocked the kid head-over-heels out of the booth, and blasted the booth, too. And now we officially had a mad warlock going magic crazy in the middle of a packed cafe. Just what I needed.

As the cafe fell into bedlam and people started to run away from the attack, I made my way out of the booth and attempted to make a sneak attack on the guy. Hey, just because I wasn't about to use magic as recklessly as him didn't mean I was locked out of smashing the guy over the head with my staff; its hard, wooden structure doubled as a handy bad-guy whacker.

Almost at the same time I moved, a small voice close by cried out, "Zoicite!" I didn't recognize the voice, but it was proper and cultured and a little high-pitched.

The warlock _did_ recognize it, however, and turned towards the voice - and thus me. His eyes lit up in recognition. "Ah, the meddlesome senshi's babysitter. Where _are_ your annoying troublemakers?" He raised an eyebrow at my crouched position. "And what do _you_ think _you're_ doing, worm?"

I paused. "Well, I was kinda hoping to crack you over the head then drag your butt to the wardens to deal with you, but then, I really don't feel like dragging you anywhere. So...beat you to a bloody pulp?"

He frowned. "How droll. Well, I have ways of dealing with people who don't respect their betters. _Zoi!_"

Instinctively I dove to the side as another rocket of force came at me. The glass window behind shattered underneath the assault. I spared a glance to see if Makoto and Usagi were ok, and from what I could tell, they were both fine, having dodged the other way. Strangely, Usagi seemed much more at ease than the other civilians. Did she deal with this kind of thing often?

_That_ was a disturbing thought.

The warlock - his name was Zoicite according to the mystery voice, though I'd already decided that I was going to call him Zoe - pursed his lips at my tactical retreat. "Well dodged, monkey, but I don't have time for you now." He bent his legs and leapt through the now broken window. "I have a crystal to retrieve."

I didn't relax for even a moment before getting to my feet. Hell's bells, why couldn't anything be easy? I was just supposed to come here, drop off Makoto, and then return home to where things like this _still_ happened, but at least I could deal with it and not have to worry about my daughter. Now I had to chase some reject from the communist mage regime (going by his drab, charcoal outfit) before he did horribly bad things to some Average Joe.

This day was looking to be _fun._

* * *

I slowly tried to get up, processing what had just happened. An obviously evil sorcerer had literally just exploded the inside of the cafe and tried to do some obviously evil sorcery things to some random guy. Papa had tried to stop him, but the megalomaniacal moron had used evocation, the sloppiest and least subtle form of magic, to fend him off.

In a cafe. Where dozens of normal human witnesses could see.

If papa didn't kick the dude's ass, the White Council was going to have a field day with someone who so flagrantly violated the laws of magic – and not just the official ones, but also the unofficial rule of not breaking the masquerade.

Papa dashed out of the cafe's exit, quickly following after both the sorcerer and the young man he was chasing. "Stay here, you two!" he barked, and took off faster than a blue-winged pegasus, quickly running out of sight.

I stared after him for a moment before muttering, "The hell I am." I took a few moments to check on Usagi and make sure none of the shattered glass or wood had injured her. Seeing that she was shaken, but with only a few bruises and minor cuts, I took her by the shoulders. "Stay here, Usagi," I said. "Make sure that everyone else is alright. Just leave that jerk to papa and me."

"Wait, Mako, what are you-"

"Hey, don't worry!" I grinned, though my heart wasn't exactly into the expression. "It's all in a day's work for a hero. I'll catch that bad guy and bring him to justice!" With that, I leapt to my feet and vaulted out the busted window, looking totally badass in the process. Usagi called out to me again, but I didn't catch what she said. Hopefully, she wouldn't decide to follow, too.

I mean, I had told her to stay after all. What was she going to do - ignore my stern warning and dive headfirst into danger with nary a thought?

...Hey, heroes can be hypocritical, too!

Luckily, papa was still in my sight when I made it to the street. He was running to the nearby park's entrance, which a part of me noted was the same one we had jumped into through the Nevernever.

Before I could call out to him, papa jumped through some bushes, and I heard a smug voice call out, "Ah, you don't learn quickly, I see. Have fun with him, then!" I shouldered my way through the bushes as well, just in time to see the villain du jour vanish, with only a distortion in the air to mark where he'd been. A split-second later, a blast of force from one of papa's rings tore a few of the branches off of the trees behind where he had been.

Papa turned to me as I caught up, and his angry glare brought me up short. He made an exasperated sound that I just knew meant I'd be getting a lecture later, but closed his eyes in that way he did when he was reading the magical energy of the area. After a few seconds, he focused on one direction and nodded.

"_Stay_ with him, Sparky," he ordered, fixing me with another glare for emphasis, and gestured at the sorcerer's recent victim, who was lying in a crumpled pile on the ground near where the man had disappeared from. I nodded in quick agreement and started over to him as Papa dashed off again.

There were times when you had to rush off and take out the villain, and there were times when you had to stay and run damage control to make sure that things didn't get worse; this was one of the latter. Papa could take care of that Palpatine-wannabe on his own. Right now, I had to make sure that the most likely horribly-magicked dude was going to be alright long enough for someone with the proper knowledge and skills to come around and fix him. My lightning powers weren't exactly fit for the situation, but papa and big sis had drilled some basic first aid into me for situations like this.

Situations where someone was injured, I mean, not for when rogue magic users were terrorizing random innocent civilians. Although the one _did _tend to coincide with the other.

…_Wow_, my life had gotten strange since papa adopted me.

I ran over to the man and knelt down next to him, noting that he was conscious, but clutching his chest and taking short, gasping breaths. That could indicate anything from simple shock to body alteration. I was _really _hoping it was the former. I put a comforting hand on his shoulder and rolled him over onto his side. "It'll be OK, sir, just try to stay calm." Not for the first time, I wished that I could carry a cellphone, but hopefully someone was close enough to hear me if I yelled.

I was about to do just that when an idiot in a mini-skirt burst into the clearing and started posing dramatically. Instinctively, my right arm and hand tensed as power flowed through, ready to be unleashed on the would-be ambusher.

"In the name of the Moon, I will… uh… Hey, where'd everyone go?" The blonde girl glanced around before fixating on the two of us. "Hey, what happened here?"

I rolled my eyes, letting the energy I had been about to zap the cosplayer with drain into the earth. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers, I guess. "Look, this guy's been hurt, I need you to call an ambulance for him." Wait, why was my arm still tingling? And why was my electro-radar acting on the fritz? It felt like a friggin' storm was building up in the area. Was papa getting into some huge mage clash or something?

"Huh? But he-"

"Right now! Get to it!"

"But Mako…"

My eyebrows shot up, and I started gathering more power. Small arcs of blue lightning began to dance between my fingers like a Jacob's ladder, though if she noticed she didn't react. "How do you know who I am?" I fixed her with a piercing glare.

"Uh, well, that's… Look! Get away from him, already!" She wildly jabbing her gloved finger towards the injured man next to me.

I spared him a glance, then did a double-take. A dark aura, clearly visible, was coming out of him like some kind of evil fire. Even as I watched, it burned even darker, and the man began to scream, contort, and grow. My brain screamed and screeched like a broken radio, and the feeling of a growing storm increased in intensity.

Before I could wrap my head around what I was seeing, he started thrashing around, knocking me onto my back. I scrambled away and back to my feet as he… it… came up to its full height, looming over me. The weird girl yelled something as a mallet – an actual friggin' whack-a-mole mallet – formed on its arm, and it lunged at me with murderous intent.

Had it not been for my self-defense lessons, I probably would have been dead right then and there. As it was, I barely threw myself out of the way of its lightning-fast swing and I realized that, as the crater it left in the ground attested to, even ridiculous-looking weapons can still be lethal. I think I caught sight of some glowing golden thing whizzing past its head, but I was too focused on my own survival to wonder at it.

And surviving was going to be hard - the monster was too close for me to safely use my long-ranged spells, too far to channel electricity into directly, and too _fast_ to either safely run away from or try to close the gap. Normally I'd break out my pair of (highly-illegal) collapsible batons for situations like this, but unfortunately I didn't have them with me because I didn't feel like explaining them if and when the school found them on me. This left me with no real choice but to try to avoid its assault and pray for a miracle.

Another high-speed swing clipped me and sent me tumbling to the ground, and I thought that was the end… until that golden disk came back and smashed into the side of its head before returning to the hands of the strange blonde girl. As I got back to my feet, I thought the thing would charge her, but instead its arm simply _extended_ towards her, and now she was on the defensive as it swung wildly.

Taking the opportunity to put some distance between us and no longer in immediate danger, a part of me finally took the chance to note its appearance – a humanoid the color of dried blood, with metallic, machine-like white armor on its head, hands, and feet. It looked like one of those cheap toys you get from a street toy-vending machine. You know, the one where you put in some change, crank the knob, and a random ball pops out? Gatchapon! That's what they're called.

However, even if the creature looked like it belonged in the minion squad of a sentai episode, it still posed a threat to both me and the crazy cosplayer. Even as I charged up a lightning bolt, the weird mallet-thing turned itself into a two-pronged claw, snatching the strange girl out of the air and holding her fast.

"Damn it!" I muttered to myself. Now that it was in contact with the girl, I couldn't just zap it or I'd hit her, too. Someone at my side started saying something, but I blocked it out as I concentrated on the fight. I'd have to hit them with a low-voltage attack; it'd still get her, but the worst it would do is knock her out, and hopefully the monster would let her go. Most supernatural creatures tended to stop focusing on their prey if a larger threat attacked them. I was effectively going to use myself as bait so that the mob monster didn't squeeze or bash the girl into the ground, but hey, self-sacrifice is what a hero's all about.

Had papa been here, he'd have doped-slapped me to Hell and back for that thought process. And then done the exact same thing. See? Heroes are _totally_ allowed to be hypocritical.

I groped at my side for my baton out of habit as I prepared the spell… and grabbed something distinctly rod-like. _Sonuvabitch_, had I actually had it the whole time and just not realized it?

I brought up the baton, thrust it towards the monster, and yelled "_Étincelle Paroi_," intending to trap the thing within a spider web of low-voltage arcs. Even as I cast the spell, however, I noticed a few details I'd missed before:

First, that wasn't my baton I was holding, but rather one of the most girly-looking pens I had ever seen.

Second, the person that had been trying to talk to me was actually Usagi's pet cat.

And third, as the pen began to glow, electricity began coursing around my body, and my electro-sense reached a crescendo with the roar of thunder in my ears and skull, I realized that I had most likely just been tricked into killing myself.

* * *

After instructing my daughter to care for the victim (and hoping she'd actually _listen_ this time), I started off in the direction I had felt energy gathering in. The guy may have fled into the Nevernever, but that much energy gathering that soon afterwards couldn't be a coincidence; most likely he'd just taken a few steps and popped back out somewhere else in the park.

He certainly couldn't have simply teleported – I'd never even _heard_ of that being possible without some sort of potion involved.

A few minutes of running later, I reached my destination: a secluded clearing in the park with the villain-of-the-week loitering in the middle. His back was to me, and he was fiddling with something I couldn't see while muttering to himself. This would usually be the point where I pull out my .357 revolver, shoot the bad guy in the head, and call it a day.

…Don't look at me like that. Hunting down warlocks may be one of the Wardens' duties, but it wasn't one I particularly enjoyed. Most warlocks are just kids who made some bad mistakes because there was no one around to teach them otherwise, and I wanted as little to do with putting them down as possible.

_This_ warlock, on the other hand, had gone far enough into the deep end of the evil-and-crazy pool that even I had to acknowledge the necessity. And that's assuming he was even human in the first place.

But back to the matter at hand. Like I said, this would _usually _be the point where I shoot him while his back is turned. Unfortunately, Japan's strict gun-control laws and tendency towards xenophobia meant I'd left it in my apartment back home – a decision I was regretting immensely at the moment. Then again, with all the times I was accosted by the local police force just for being dark and 'foreign' in the last several hours alone, perhaps it really was a good thing I wasn't packing heat. Still, it was a problem; until I knew whether or not this bozo qualified as human, I couldn't risk killing him with magic.

Well, if guns were out and magic was out, that just left my fists, feet, and absurdly long limbs. And, of course, my big stick.

I crept forward as silently as I could, doing my best impression of a hunter stalking his prey. Actually, scratch that; I was in Japan now, so I was doing my best impression of a _ninja_, which is way better. I got into striking range without the idiot noticing me, and a grin spread across my face. I had the perfect opportunity to do something I just couldn't resist.

I took careful aim, channeled a bit of force into my staff (enough to hurt like hell and send him flying a few feet without actually killing him) and swung in an arc.

"_FOOOOOOOOOOORE!"_

The end of my staff caught Zoe on the crack of his ass with one of the meatiest and most satisfying smacks I'd ever had the pleasure of hearing.

"…_zare."_

The resounding blow launched him forward, and I winced as he smashed face-first into a tree with a sickening snap; I'd definitely broken his nose with that attack. Still, I hadn't meant to send him _that_ far. A pair of crystals flew from his hands, the larger black one hitting a rock with the sound of cracking glass, a shower of sparks coming from it.

I dashed towards him as Zoe pushed himself to his feet, one hand clutching his nose, blood dribbling between and staining his white-gloved fingers. "You stubid _abe_! You'll bay for dat!"

Hmm… Dressed in ominous and pretentious dark-colored clothing? Check. A face that would cause most people to question their sexuality and looked like it belonged in one of Makoto's moon books? Check. An extremely arrogant attitude that switched to cartoonish rage at the smallest slight? Check. And, finally, shouting out vague, clichéd threats at the first sign of resistance? Oh so very check.

Ladies and gentleman, I was officially fighting a comic-book villain.

I smirked and brought my staff down in a sudden strike to his head, but he flew – literally _flew_ – to the side with surprising speed. He didn't move far enough, though, and I turned the over-head blow into a horizontal swipe, catching his side and sending him a few more yards through the air.

I mean meters. Japan uses meters.

I was about to start after him again when my magic sense screamed at me to stop, and I dug my heels into the ground. Between us, an arcane circle flashed into existence, glowing dark blue and spinning as multiple lines and symbols meshed with one another like cogs in a clock. At the same time, Mr. Comic Book Villain sneered haughtily and pulled out another crystal, crushing it to dust in his hands. The circle flashed again, and, before I had a chance to break it, a creature from humanity's nightmares slowly but surely began to rise out of the ground.

Granted, once you've seen one demon summoning, you've seen them all. Hell's bells, I've even performed a few back in my days when I didn't quite realize how utterly stupid I was being. Still, what bothered me most wasn't the fact that the bozo had brought forth a demon in the middle of a public avenue, but rather that I hadn't seen him prepare the circle ahead of time. Summoning and binding creatures, demons or not, was a touchy and meticulous process that required the utmost care and preparation so that the summoned being didn't immediately eat your face off once it appeared.

To that effect, the circle had to be religiously crafted and maintained, lest your first summoning also be your last. Even something as simple as a chalk outline could work in a pinch, but the man hadn't made anything of the sort in my sight, and I refused to believe that he had enough time before I caught him _or_ that he'd actually foreseen that someone would chase after him.

Guys like Zoe tended to think they were ahead of the curve, and thus never expected anyone to really try to foil their nefarious plans.

Back to reality, though. A sadistic smirk found its way to his face and he pointed a bloodied finger at me. Smooth. "Kill him!" he ordered the demon, before grabbing the crystals and escaping the same way he had last time, vanishing out of sight and leaving only a flurry of cherry blossoms in his wake.

The thing before me looked like a pale-blue, half-naked mockery of a woman. It had knives for fingers and hair like hundreds of pairs of scissors, and as it smiled it revealed rows of shark teeth. Its many serrated edges clacked together with a hungering madness, and a forked, snake-like tongue flicked out of its mouth, tasting the air. Faced with such a sight, I could really only react one way.

"Meh, I've seen worse. _Fuego!_"

"Wha-"

And then it was on fire.

I kept the heat on for a few more seconds, until cinders started to drift through the air, blown by the air currents my flames were creating. Hells bells, I hadn't made it _that_ hot, had I?

I took a moment to inspect my handiwork; there was no trace left of the demon except for the cinders. I cast out my senses to try to locate the moron who'd summoned it again, but couldn't sense anything – either Zoe'd fled farther this time, or he was smart enough not to draw my attention again. The latter seemed rather far-fetched, but my paranoia made me go with it for the time being.

After taking a minute to scatter the demon's ashes around the park with a wind spell (better to assume it could pull itself together and look foolish than to assume it couldn't and bite me in the ass... sometimes literally), I started hurrying back to where I'd left Makoto and the injured man.

* * *

A few seconds that felt like an eternity later, the energy subsided, leaving me surprisingly not-dead. If anything, I actually felt _stronger_. Even as I tried to fathom what had happened, the energy I had gathered released itself in an over-powered blast of lightning and smashed into the monster.

The monster was sent flying through the air at the force of it, and yet, counter to everything I know about electricity (which is a _lot_), the other girl was completely unharmed. The worst that happened to her was that she landed on her butt when the monster dropped her, leaving her pouting and rubbing a sore spot on her rear. I stared at the thing lying in a heap on the ground, completely stunned, until I noticed something.

My extended hand now had a white, elbow-length glove covering it. I glanced down at myself, and saw that I was wearing a stylized version of a school fuku, with a _very_ short skirt. In fact, it looked a lot like a green version of the ridiculous outfit Usagi was wearing…

Wait. I turned to look at the other girl – now in conversation with her cat – and saw that she was, indeed, my friend from school. How had I not recognized her?! The hair alone should have been a dead give-away! It's not like anyone else had poor enough fashion-sense to try and rock the dango look!

As I watched, Luna jumped and pulled off a mid-air flip, materializing a pink, crescent-moon adorned rod out of thin air. Usagi grabbed it before I could warn her not to – you never, _ever_, accept gifts from the fey.

...Shut up, I didn't even know that it was Usagi's cat that had given me the pet. It wasn't like I'd intentionally accepted the thing.

I started wracking my brain for some way, _any_ way, to pull my friend out of the fire she was in – and myself as well. It was_ notoriously_ difficult to break deals with the fae once they had been made, and breaches in contract usually had _much_ harsher consequences than the original price. However, my brainstorming was interrupted when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and saw the demon starting to lurch back to its feet.

I tried to charge up another spell, only for the energy to go wild just as it had before, ready to launch itself out in another massive bolt of lightning. Just before it could release, though, a pair of paws kicked me in the head, making the spell fizzle.

"Hey! Weren't you listening?!" the faerie-cat yelled at me as it landed. "I said Sailor Moon can heal him!"

My attempts at a reply were cut off when Usagi started waving around that wand-thing and incanted, in horrific Engrish, "_Moon Healing Escalation!"_ After a brief light-show and a bit of screaming on the part of the demon, it seemed to simply disintegrate. Its body melted away like it was being burned off, and soon all that was left of it was the man it used to be, who slumped to the ground like a sack of rice.

With everything I had just seen and done, and all that it implied, I had a few billion questions. After a brief moment to collect my thoughts, however, one in particular came to the forefront of my mind.

"What the _fuck_ just happened?!" I screamed at Usagi, slipping back into English out of frustration and confusion.

"Did… did Jupiter just turn into a Yankee?"

"You… and he, and Luna, you…" I grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her, still spouting random English obscenities. "What the _hell_?!"

"Allow me to explain." I snapped my bloodshot eyes to the faerie-cat. Luna took a step back at the mad look I was giving her and coughed. "Er, right. We didn't want to reveal it to you like this, but you have a great destiny ahead for you." She sat on her haunches and held her head up high. Had I not known what she really was or been in the middle of a major meltdown, I'd have thought her attempt to look imperial was downright adorable.

"You are part of an elite and noble fighting force meant to protect both the Earth and the Sol system from all outside dangers that would dare threaten it. Reincarnated after millennia of sleep, you are tasked to find, serve, and protect the princess of the moon and help her lead all of humanity into a brighter and better future."

Luna pointed a paw at me, her eyes shimmering with pride and fondness. "Avatar of the storm of souls, senshi of the forest, bringer of thunder, guardian of the planet Jupiter. You are she that brings all to their knees with a flash of lightning, the sailor senshi, Sailor Jupiter!"

With her epic speech done, I only had one clear rebuttal to express all that I felt about her and her doctrine.

"FFFFUUUUUUUU-"

* * *

The next couple of hours were a stupid and annoying blur. After returning to check on the victim, I was pleased to see that he seemed alright. Well, as alright as having a crystal the size of a golfball ripped out of his chest could leave you, but he didn't seem the worse for wear for it, physically or spiritually. It took a while for the police to arrive, but when they did they took all of our statements on what had transgressed and called in an ambulance to take the guy in. Things were neat and orderly and moving along nicely until the main officer took one look at me and then asked for me to follow him to the police box for 'further questioning.'

It took the combined efforts of Makoto and Usagi to both explain to the officer that I was the good guy in the scenario and prevent me from bashing the ignorant buffoon's head in. No good deed goes unpunished when you have prejudiced asshats like that around, huh? Thankfully, my suffering ended eventually, though not nearly soon enough for my liking, and Makoto and I escorted Usagi back home.

The entire way to Usagi's house and back, Makoto was strangely listless. Usagi kept trying to engage her in conversation, taking quick glances between her and me, but Makoto just responded with monosyllabic answers or indifferent grunts. Something was clearly wrong, and Usagi knew what was going on, but neither were willing to explain it to me. Even the bloody _cat_ seemed to have a clue, and I was left completely in the dark.

Eventually, we made it back to the apartment and entered. Makoto removed her shoes before entering, as customary for her, and I followed suit, if only to make her feel more at ease. We walked to the center of the room and Makoto plopped down onto the floor, like a marionette with its strings cut.

Hesitantly, I placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. She turned to face me, her eyes blank. "Hey," I murmured. "What's up? You've been acting funny since that warlock showed up. Is anything wrong?"

She shook her head. "It's nothing. I-"

"Kiddo," I interrupted. "You know you can tell me if something's bothering you. I'm your dad. It's kinda what I'm here for."

Makoto looked down. She took a deep breath, exhaled, and then looked back up at me. Tears were glistening in her eyes, unshed through pure will. "Papa, I think I'm in big trouble."

A lump began to form in the pit of my stomach. "...what happened?"

She told me. She told me everything. How the victim had suddenly transformed into a demon, how Usagi had appeared dressed up like some rabid cosplayer, how she herself had transformed, and the boost to her powers that followed it, that Luna was actually some kind of Nevernever creature, how she was supposedly some great magic soldier, reincarnated from the past.

With every piece she explained, the lump grew bigger, my blood ran colder, and my soul burned hotter. I knew why she was so worried. She had made a deal with the fae, or something similar. You don't walk away from something like that, and you never finished a deal without losing something essential about yourself in the process. My fairy godmother, the Leanansidhe, drilled that concept into my head quite well.

_Something _had tricked my daughter into fighting its battles for it. _Something_ had subverted her free will. _Something_ had taken something from her without her consent. _Something _was going to_ pay_ for that.

I had remained silent throughout Makoto's explanation, and she must've taken my silence as some form of rejection for her perceived foolishness, because she tried to shy away from me, wiping her eyes clean of tears.

"I'm sorry, papa, I didn't know what I was-"

I didn't let her finish, pulling her towards me and hugging her tight. "It's alright, Makoto. Papa's here. Papa'll take care of it," I shushed her gently, rubbing the back of her head. She shivered for a couple seconds before flinging her arms around me and burying her face into my chest, hot tears freely flooding from her eyes.

Makoto was a smart girl, and with that intelligence came fear. She might act like a foolhardy hero, but she knew when she was in over her head, and she knew when she was stuck in a situation where she had no chance of digging herself out alone. She was in trouble, she was backed up against a wall, she knew it, and it _terrified_ her.

Something had made my baby girl cry.

Azabu-Juuban was about to be bathed in flames.

And this time, it was _absolutely_ going to be my fault.

* * *

A/N (Irritus): Second chapter is done! Man, this one was a lot more of a emotional roller coaster for me than the first. Originally, this and chapter one were to be a single installment, but you can see that the result would have been _way _too huge for one chapter. As for the wait? Yeah, no real excuse for that. I could say finals struck me, but it's different when you're making the finals rather than taking them. Yeah, I'm an educator. Fear for the children of America, people.

In any case, a lot of stuff happened, and not all of it was happy. For those who thought Makoto and Harry would be pleased at Makoto's transformation, remember this - in the Dresdenverse, _everything_ comes at a price, and the contractor is usually something more akin to Kyuubey than a genie (though traditionally, djinn are real assholes.) Don't believe me? Fairy court knights, Denarians, black magic, Darkhallow, hexenwolves... Yeah, kinda speaks for itself.

Well, until next time.

A/N (Raithe): I am honestly shocked that no one in the comments section called this reaction. Gonna be even more fun when something else gets Jossed a few chapters from now.

As for the chapter itself, we didn't really have a way to make this clear, so in a (most likely futile) effort to stop people from commenting about it: The crane game guy was saved from his first encounter with Zoicite by Ami and Rei, who had left the arcade in search of Usagi.


	3. File 03: Cat's Paw

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon nor Dresden Files. If I did, Moon would not be so useless, and fans would burn me at the stake for destroying Harry's awesomeness

**The Senshi Files: Silver Warden  
File 03: Cat's Paw  
By Irritus185/Raithe**

Eventually, Makoto calmed down enough to stop herself from sobbing, and I calmed down enough to stop myself from storming out and setting everything that I came across ablaze.

Makoto hiccupped as I rubbed her back, her face still buried in my chest. "You feeling better, kiddo?" I asked gently.

Makoto raised her head and wiped a sleeve across her nose. She snorted noisily. "Yeah, I'm better. Thanks, papa."

I grimaced slightly at the snot she had smeared on both of our clothes, but as any parent can tell you, it was a small price to pay. "No problem. You feel good enough to start planning a counterattack?"

Her eyes glimmered with renewed fire. "You better believe it. I do listen to you, after all."

"And the first rule is...?"

Makoto raised a finger and put on an imitation of my lecturing voice. "Always go in with a plan prepared, even if the enemy manages to ruin it in the end." She then copied my smarmy grin. "And if that happens, set them on fire and run away."

"Because they'll be too busy putting themselves out to focus on you." I tousled her hair. "Good girl. You don't fall asleep during my lessons after all!" Makoto stuck her tongue out, and I responded with a flick to her forehead. She pouted cutely. "So, what's our first avenue of attack? Didn't the faerie cat give you some kind of focus device?"

"Oh, right!"

Makoto dug her into her bag and pulled out an item wrapped in a handkerchief. She handled it gingerly as she laid it on the floor and carefully undid the bundle, making sure not to touch the contents. Smart girl. She knew enough to try and keep as little contact with the item as possible. When she finally finished unwrapping it, one of my eyebrows slowly arched up at the sight, and I looked up at her.

"Is that...?"

She sighed. "I know. I had the exact same reaction."

It looked like something you'd buy a young girl from a big-box store, the kind that came as part of a pretty-pretty princess set. The item was a gold and green pen with a small marble-like orb at the top, a ring encircling it. I could make out the astrological symbol for Jupiter inscribed into the orb.

"Huh, first time I've seen the fey go for something so girly-looking. Usually they're more into practical or gothic than Disney."

"Please don't remind me, papa." She fidgeted, pulling at the legs of her tracksuit. "If you think that's bad, you're going to hate the battle outfit the thing puts on me."

"Oh please, it can't be that-"

"I look like the slutty Halloween version of a ballerina."

I think I blanked out for a bit, because one moment I was listening to words that would not dare to exit my precious daughter's mouth, and the next I was watching Makoto put out a small fire that had mysteriously appeared, localized on the spot the pen was lying. Surprisingly, the pen was completely unharmed without even a scorch mark to show for the abuse, while Makoto's handkerchief had been vaporized into ash and dust.

Makoto sighed as she put down the cup of water she'd just extinguished the spontaneous combustion with. "I told you you'd hate it."

"Kiddo, sweetie, you are not to go within five feet of that thing until I find a way to melt it into slag."

"Yes, papa."

I was just worried that the artifact would have negative effects on my darling daughter's mental and physical health, that's all. I was in no way concerned with the idea that it had been crafted by a relative of Bob's as a way to put young girls in compromising outfits.

Note to self: check with Bob to see if he had something to do with this when I got home. The Box of Shame might have to be put to use again.

Shoving that future plan of action to the back of my mind, I shifted my focus directly onto the pen. Whatever it was, it was obviously made of stern stuff since it hadn't even been scratched from the mysterious fire. That wasn't surprising, though; most magical artifacts were hard to harm if not nigh-unbreakable. It kind of defeated the purpose of investing tons of time and energy into an object if the result broke at the first sign of resistance.

Focus items were the most common - things like my staff and blasting rod, and Makoto's stun batons. They were objects that could be used to enhance the natural spellcasting abilities of a magic user. Others, like my force rings or Makoto's lightning batteries, were enchanted items used for the storage of magic or spells that could be used on the fly and then recharged over time.

And then there were the big boys – objects of power, magical items that did it all. Those were the most powerful, but also the most dangerous, for obvious reasons.

I had to do some testing to see exactly what this pen did. From what Makoto told me, it seemed to be a sort of storage space for the magical battle armor that enhanced her powers. So what did that make it - an enchanted item? Object of power? Something else altogether?

I drew in on myself, pulling myself deeper into my mind to ignore the physical world as I reached out with my magical senses. It was risky, sure, touching an unknown and clearly powerful magical item that had been procured from a Nevernever being, but we had to figure the thing out, and there was no way I was going to let Makoto do it.

Immediately, I could feel the pen brimming with magical power. It was clearly a strong focal point for whatever fount of energy it drew from. I slowly inched closer, trying to discover more about it. Strong, and somewhat similar to Makoto's power; that was worrisome. I reached closer and touched it with a tendril of my senses.

I snapped back to reality and found myself on my back, Makoto crawling over to me in concern. She shook my shoulders roughly, trying to get my attention.

"Papa! Are you ok?" Her voice was tense, sounding like it was about to break at any moment.

"I'm...I'm fine, Sparky." I put a hand to my head and rubbed at my temple slightly. "It just surprised me, is all."

Makoto heaved a great sigh, all of the tension escaping from her body. "What happened? One second you were all still, doing your magic senses thingy, and the next you jumped backwards and fell over."

"Like I said, I was surprised." My eyes shifted over to look at the pen. "I don't think your little friend there liked me messing with it."

Makoto's eyes widened. "You mean… you mean it's _alive_?"

"Well, not exactly alive," I said. "But it definitely has some form of awareness. The second I touched it, it felt like someone had slapped my hand, like I was some naughty kid trying to filch some cookies before dinner."

She was silent for a few moments. Then she started to shake, and small giggles came out. I frowned. "What?"

"Heheheh, papa was bad, so you're getting put to bed early," she teased. She poked me in the forehead with enough force to tilt me backwards.

I rolled my eyes. "Alright, alright, enough joking around." Makoto swallowed her laughter, but her body still shook every once in a while with suppressed mirth. "_New_ new rule - neither of us are to touch that thing except with a five-foot pole."

"Like your staff?"

"That'll work."

She laughed again. I gave a few chuckles myself, but my feelings on the matter were even more concerned than before. It was bad enough that the thing had some connection to my daughter, but knowing that it had a will of its own? _That_ was troublesome. It wasn't exactly sentient, and it seemed like it only reacted to signs of intrusion, but nothing good ever came of objects that could think for themselves - even on as rudimentary a level as this one did.

Which meant that I had to do further investigation of the artifact, even if there was a pretty big risk in it. If it meant that Makoto would be safer, then there really wasn't any other choice.

I calmed myself, steeling my resolve for what I had to do next. With all the trepidation and reluctance that it deserved, I opened my third eye and Saw.

The Sight was something close to that of a wizard's soulgaze – a visual representation of something not normally observable. In this case, the Sight allowed a magic user to see the true nature of a person, place or thing with the purest of clarity. The upside was that it stripped away any illusions, falsehoods or lies; the downside was that you never forgot what you saw, a permanent searing of the image directly onto your brain.

And some things you could witness with the Sight were not at all pleasant. It wasn't uncommon for someone to go mad after Seeing something the mortal mind just couldn't comprehend. Lovecraft could only _wish_ he knew what those dark things that crawl looked like.

What I Saw wasn't nearly as maddening or malevolent as that, but it was almost as grand in magnitude. Whatever the pen was, it was definitely somewhat aware, and it had a clear connection to Makoto, symbolized by the thin red string that linked it to a place right around where her heart was. The entity, being, whatever you wanted to call it, was massive, dwarfing anything else I could immediately recall other than the appearance of the sidhe queens to the Sight. But it was also benign, and quite possibly beholden to Makoto. It was a guardian force, watching over my daughter with all the care and obedience of a well-trained guard dog.

Strangely enough, a sense of déjà vu rushed through me, but for the life of me I couldn't place where the feeling of familiarity originated from. All I knew was that, while whatever power had taken ahold of my daughter was indeed immense in strength, it wasn't actually attempting to consume or corrupt her.

Still, that didn't mean I could relax just yet – just because something didn't have ill will of its own didn't mean that it couldn't be used for evil. Not to mention that there was an entire branch of magic – thaumaturgy – which worked by exploiting links _just like_ the one my daughter now had with the pen.

And, of course, there was still the matter of just what Luna was, and why she was gathering young girls to fight some sort of war for her.

I had questions for that devil cat…

I forced my third eye closed, and the more defined vision of the world slipped back into its normal one. Makoto looked at me carefully, obviously cautious about throwing me off balance. She knew what the Sight could do, and she was always careful whenever I had just entered or exited it.

"So?" she prompted. "What did you see?"

"Well, whatever it is, it's definitely got ahold of you," I said. Makoto paled at the implications, and I headed off her impending breakdown by giving her a minor noogie. As she scowled, I said, "I don't think we have to worry too much at this point though. The pen, whatever it is, doesn't seem to be doing much more than hook itself to you. I can't see any real changes to your body, mind, or soul, magical or otherwise."

"Well, that's good then, isn't it? As long as it isn't poisoning me or taking over my mind or anything like that, I should be fine, right?"

"For the moment. But I don't like the idea of something I don't know the first thing about getting its claws into my little girl." And I had a pretty good understanding of things invading another person's soul.

"Daddy…" my daughter whined, her voice that perfectly annoying pitch only a teenaged girl could hit.

"Yeah, yeah," I waved her off. She pursed her lips, and my mouth curled up the tiniest bit. "In any case, we have to learn more about what this thing is, and what's happening to you. And the best way to do that is to get back into contact with that furry recruiter of yours and get her to answer some very vital questions."

"I guess it shouldn't be too hard," Makoto said. "She and Usagi seemed pretty eager to explain things to me when it first happened, but I was still too frazzled to listen to them, and then there was the whole 'explaining things to the cops' thing and we just sorta lost the chance to go any further."

"Well, do you think there's a chance you could get them over here anytime soon? The faster we can understand the situation, the faster I can get you out of it."

"No problem. Usagi gave me her number in case I needed to contact her."

"Then let's start with that," I said. "Invite her over in the next couple of days, tomorrow preferably, and we can get this whole debacle behind us."

Makoto nodded, and the two of us delved into the planning of what we were going to do next. It wasn't going to be pretty or precise or even all that impressive, but we had to make do with what was available to us, and we had both dealt with enough Nevernever creatures to know exactly how to handle them.

Because, fey or not, there was more than one way to skin a cat.

* * *

I anxiously paced the room, turning around every time I hit the wall and walking back the other way. I had done it so many times that I knew exactly how many steps it took to cross the room, forwards and backwards.

It was ten. Papa could probably cut that number in half.

But that wasn't the point; the point was that I was nervously waiting for Usagi and Luna to arrive so that we could discuss 'senshi business'. I was lucky enough to get Usagi on the phone the night before and convince her to come over Sunday morning. Papa had said that the sooner, the better, but I didn't think I was ready to put together an act of subterfuge so early in the morning, let alone with so little time to prepare.

Still, what was done was done, and the plan was all set. Luckily, papa had all the ingredients we needed for our hastily put-together trap, and all I needed to do to spring it was inject a little energy. But, ugh…even though I knew papa was nearby in case everything fell apart, I was still worried that I'd screw everything up.

Not that I was worried about Usagi overwhelming me; the kind-hearted ditz probably couldn't harm a fly without crying about it. The same could not be said for that faerie cat. Considering the fey had completely different moral values which were essentially alien to humans, I wasn't sure how she'd react to my act of defiance.

Hopefully, she wouldn't transform into some hulking rage monster that we needed to put down.

A knock at the door interrupted my whirling thoughts. I bit my lip hard enough to almost draw blood, squared my shoulders, and prepared myself for what I had to do. Walking up to the door with an outward calm I didn't really feel, I opened it and smiled at my guests.

"Hi, Usagi, Luna, glad you could make it!"

"Hi, Mako!" Usagi said. "We're so glad you invited us. Me and Luna have so much to tell you! Ohmigosh, it's gonna be _so_ fun!"

Luna looked down from her perch on Usagi's shoulder. "Indeed, there is much we have to discuss. But before we do anything, are you certain that no one else is here? Your father is away? It would be quite unfortunate to have an outsider find out about what we're doing."

I resisted from grinding my teeth at the pompous pussy cat. Oh, she'd get hers soon enough. "Yeah, no worries. Papa's out visiting some coworkers of his."

"He knows people in Japan?" Usagi asked.

"He works for an international firm," I said. "They're located all over the world. In fact, that's what I'm doing here in the first place. He had some business that needed attending and figured it'd be good for me to visit my old homeland."

"Wow, your father sounds really cool!" Usagi paused for a second. "But wait, I thought your dad was some sorta private eye?"

"Oh, he is," I said smoothly. "But that's more of a side-job for him. The firm he works for doesn't exactly pay well, so he gets most of his living expenses through his detective gig."

"Oh, that's neat."

Natural twenty on a Bluff check. Oh yeah.

"Well, come on in. I made cookies if you're hungry. Watch your step, though, a light blew out and it's a bit dar-"

"Cookies?"

I blinked at the suddenly Usagi-less space in front of me. Looking inside, I saw her already sitting down and stuffing her face with the baked goods I'd prepared ahead of time. She glanced up at me, three cookies hanging from her lips.

"These er weally good, Mako!" she said, the cookies muffling her.

I sighed and shook my head. Closing the door, I took my seat across from her. Usagi passed a cookie to Luna, who took it with a small sound of appreciation. If it weren't for the fact that I knew just how tricky and manipulative the fey were, I would've thought the way she and Usagi interacted cute.

Usagi inhaled several more cookies before finally realizing she was a guest in someone else's home. She laughed awkwardly at my wry look before slowing down. "Er, sorry about that. They were just so yummy I couldn't help myself!"

"Yes, they were quite exquisite," Luna added.

"Don't worry about it," I said. "I've been around you eating enough to know what I'm getting into. Just learn to breathe between bites next time, k?"

"Eheheh, sorry."

"Really, Usagi, you must learn to be more graceful," Luna said with a long-suffering air.

"Luna…" Usagi whined. Luna sighed and shook her head, putting a paw to her face. Usagi gave another small whining sound and then perked up. "Oh, before I forget, I managed to set up a study session with Ami and Rei tomorrow. You're welcome to join if you want."

"Really, that quick?" I said, impressed that it had been done so quickly. "Thanks, that'd be a real help."

"No problem!" Usagi beamed.

Luna coughed. When she found both of our attention on her, she nodded. "Now that we have the pleasantries over, perhaps it's time to get down to what we came here to do. It's time I explain to you about your fate and what we must do to defeat the Dark Kingdom, our mortal enemies."

'Dark Kingdom'? They seriously named their so-called enemies the Dark Kingdom? Ugh, it was like dealing with fourth-graders.

I nodded. "Alright, that sounds good. Oh, but before that! Here Luna, take a seat. It can't be easy lounging on Usagi all day." I gestured at the floor pillow next to me.

"Well thank you very kindly, Makoto," Luna said. She bounded down from Usagi's shoulder and padded over to the pillow.

I held my breath and sneakily took a grasp on the pillow's corner. This was it. I could only hope that between the pillow partially covering it and the dimness of the room, Luna wouldn't be able to see what had been drawn on the floor.

Luna started to hop onto the center of the pillow, and that's when I made my move. I yanked the pillow aside, revealing the full magic circle designed for binding supernatural creatures papa and I had prepared the night before. The instant she touched down inside the circle, I flooded the runes with my will and the trap snapped shut.

"Hey, what was that for?" Luna asked in irritation. She looked down and patted at the circle. "And what's with this weird drawing? Is this some kind of joke?"

I grinned in triumph. "Let's see you get out of that!" I crowed.

Luna tilted her head and walked out of the circle, breaking apart the mystical bindings like they were made of tissue paper.

My jaw dropped. But…but that was impossible! She shouldn't have been able to do that! The fey were nothing but collections of ectoplasm when in the real world, held together by pure force of will. They didn't have anything physical to cancel out the spiritual structure of magic, so there was no way Luna should have been able to waltz out of the circle like it was a walk in the park. Unless…

"You're…you're not a fey!"

Usagi and Luna looked at each other then back at me in confusion. That only confused _me_ even more. Usagi not knowing what a fey was made sense, since Luna probably lied to her about everything, but there was no way a talking cat didn't know about the fey. And why did she seem to not recognize what a magic circle was, either?

"What are you talking about, Mako?" Usagi asked curiously.

"You're not a fey!" I repeated. "What are you? You're not from the Nevernever, that's for sure. If you were, there's no way you could've just walked out of that binding circle."

"Binding circle? What are you talking about?" Luna asked.

"Stow it, demon cat," I interrupted, venom seeping into my words. "Let me ask again, what are you? Were-cat? Bakeneko? What?"

"I always assumed she was an alien," Usagi said absently, putting a finger to her chin.

"This isn't time for jokes, Usagi!" I barked. "This is serious!"

Usagi flinched away from me. Luna bristled, her tail rising up. "Now that is enough! Honestly, I don't have the slightest clue what you're going on about, but this is not the time to make baseless accusations. We need to discuss ways to prevent the Dark Kingdom from winning, and you yelling and spouting random nonsense is _not_ helping!

"You're right. So why don't you explain to me just what this whole 'soldier of love and justice' shtick is about. I'm _dying _to know."

Luna and Usagi froze at the masculine voice coming from behind them. Slowly, they turned around and saw papa standing behind them in all his awesome glory, his legs widened in a battle stance and his staff planted solidly on the floor.

"Papa!" I said in relief.

"Hey, kiddo," he waved. "Thought it was time I stepped in. Plus, it was getting kinda cramped camping out on the toilet.

"I could imagine," I grinned. With his absurdly long limbs, I found the image of papa sitting on the john all tangled in his own elbows and knees absolutely hilarious.

"Mako!" Usagi gasped, her voice sounding shocked and betrayed. "You _told_ your _dad?_"

"Of course I did!" I said. "What, did you just expect me to just go along with your little demon cat's spiel about fighting against the forces of evil? I'm not that stupid." I lifted my nose up. "Plus, papa's been doing that for way longer, and he's tons better at it."

"Ohmigosh, you mean your dad really _is_ a wizard? Ohmigosh, ohmigosh, that is _so_ awesome!"

"Usagi!" Luna yowled, having finally gotten ahold of herself. "This is neither the time nor the place. Control yourself!" As Usagi calmed herself down, Luna turned towards me, pure vitriol in her voice and eyes. "And _you._ How could you reveal us to outsiders? This breach could bring about the end of us!"

"Hey, don't talk to my daughter that way!" Papa growled.

"You keep out of this!" Luna snapped back. "I'll find a way to deal with this and then I'll have to teach Jupiter what it means to keep a secret."

"Luna!" Usagi gasped. "We don't talk about friends that way!"

"Usagi, you don't understand!" Luna hurriedly said. "We can't have people who aren't part of the Silver Millennium know about what's going on. The Dark Kingdom might use them to get at your secret identities! What about your family?"

"But I'm pretty sure Naru knows, and-"

"And she was kidnapped because of it! Listen, Usagi, it is imperative that…"

As fascinating and revealing as their conversation was, I was more focused on papa, and how he'd gone ramrod stiff the second Luna mentioned she was going to 'teach' me. Sweat trickled down my spine as the temperature in the room raised a couple degrees, and papa's face was absolutely blank.

I knew that face. That was the face he made before things went 'boom.'

"Did you just threaten my daughter?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. When the others failed to respond, he raised his voice to a little under a shout. "I _said_ – did you just threaten my daughter?"

Luna and Usagi turned to face him, Luna's mouth opening to say something but halting instantly upon seeing my dad's face.

"Because, if you did." Papa leaned down and extended a hand. A ball of flames blossomed in his hand like the world's deadliest flower. "I have no problem _burning_ you to a _crisp_."

Usagi yelped and fell backwards, knocking over the bowl of cookies and scattering them. Luna backflipped in the same direction. "How could he be using magic?" the cat screamed. "There's no way modern humans can-" She paused and her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. "Usagi! He must be aligned with the Dark Kingdom! You have to transform into Sailor Moon!"

"Got it!" Usagi reached into her pocket and pull out a huge, gaudy-looking brooch. "_Moon Prism Pow_-eek!"

The instant she started chanting whatever incantation activated the brooch, I leapt across the room and tackled her to the floor. She gave a squeal of pain as I knocked the obvious focus item out of her hand and locked her arms behind her back, putting just enough force to keep her from breaking free without hurting her more than I had to.

"Mako," she gasped, tears appearing in her eyes. "Why are you doing this?"

"Sorry, Usagi," I murmured gently. "But this is for your own good."

"Jupiter, what are you doing?" Luna yelled. "I can't believe the Dark Kingdom's corruption has spread even into our ranks! I must warn the others!"

"Oh no you don't!" Papa shouted. He shot his staff out and aimed it at Luna like a cannon. "_Ventas servitas!_"

Wind whipped around the room from papa's all-purpose grabby/pushy wind spell. Luna gave a feline yowl as she was lifted from her feet and yanked towards him. Papa grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and raised her up to eye-level.

"Now, what say you and I have a little chat?"

Luna looked him straight in the eyes. "I'll never tell you anything, Dark King-"

And then something happened that I don't think any of us expected – a soul gaze.

Both papa and Luna froze as the mystical stripping away of their barriers suddenly commenced and just as quickly ended. Papa dropped Luna like she was an active grenade, and Luna hit the ground shaking like a leaf.

Papa put a hand to his face and dragged it down. "Oh good lord, you actually believe you're doing the right thing, don't you?"

Luna's reaction to the event was much less collected. "What the hell was that, what the hell was that, what in the blasted new moon _was_ that?" she shrieked. "What did you do to me? What was that monster I saw?"

"Probably the super-werewolf. Or maybe it was the zombie t-rex," papa replied dryly.

"Luna!" Usagi cried. She struggled against my hold but withered when I added a little pressure. "What did you do to her?"

"Something that shouldn't be possible," I muttered. "Papa? What just happened?"

"Take it easy, kiddo," he said. "Everything's going to be alright. Don't worry." He glanced at Luna, who was still shuddering, though not to the extent she was a few seconds ago. "Oi, moon cat, you feeling better? Take it easy, and the worst of it should pass."

Luna shivered once more. She nervously licked her paw and rubbed it over her head, an action that seemed out of place despite her feline form. "Yes, yes, I understand. I…I am feeling a bit shaken, but… but… yes."

Papa jerked his head at me. "You can let go of your friend now, kiddo. I don't think she'll be any trouble."

I frowned but listened, letting go of Usagi. Immediately she jumped up and scooped Luna up, cradling her like an infant. Luna nuzzled her, tears in her eyes. Usagi questioned her frantically, and Luna responded gently, giving words of reassurance. The cat turned around in Usagi's arms and faced papa.

"You… you won't hurt the girls… will you?" she asked, her voice soft, but laced with a hint of steel.

"You should know by now that I wouldn't," papa said tiredly, rubbing the back of his head. I moved over and sat beside him. He looped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me close. "Just as I know that you wouldn't intentionally bring my daughter to harm for selfish reasons."

"Of course I wouldn't!" she said firmly. "Why would you possibly think that?"

"Most beings I've met that say they're going to 'teach' someone with that tone of voice aren't the nicest of people."

"You thought… I would never harm the senshi! They are my responsibility!" she responded, more than a hint of offense in her tone.

"So what exactly did you mean by 'teaching', then? What, were you going to give her a lecture on not giving up inside info to the enemy?"

I think that was the first time I'd ever seen a cat blush. Luna went silent. Usagi pursed her lips.

"Luna's lectures are the worst!" she whined. "She makes you sit in seiza position and then talks at you for _hours!_ One time she lectured me for three hours straight because of my eating habits. I was _so_ hungry by the end of it."

With that complete non-sequitur, the tension in the room fell flat on its face. Both Luna and papa gave twin sighs of exasperation, and I face-palmed. Leave it to Usagi to take a tense and (potentially literally) explosive situation and completely pull the rug out from underneath it.

Luna was the first to recover, presumably used to it. She coughed awkwardly and slithered out of Usagi's grasp, landing in front of her and planting her rear on the floor. I could tell she was trying to gather her wits back up, but the after-effects of the soul gaze were still messing with her brains something fierce. Papa's mind wasn't a very nice place to be, and I'm sure it'd only gotten scarier since I'd last seen it.

Fighting against the forces of evil and world-destroying monsters tends to have an effect on people.

"Anyway…" Luna coughed again into her curled paw. "I now see you aren't a threat, at least to me or the senshi. I don't know _how_ I know that, though. Would you kindly mind explaining this to me?"

Papa cracked his neck and folded his legs Indian-style. "What you were just part of is what we magic users call a 'soul gaze'. Basically, you just got a first-class look into my very being, and I got to look into yours. A sort of 'you show me yours, I'll show you mine' type of thing." He tapped the side of his head. "As an added bonus, you'll never forget what you saw. Congrats, the story of my life is now a permanent resident in your head. Enjoy the reruns."

"I, I see," Luna said carefully. She blinked. "Wait, you saw mine as well? Does that mean…"

"You're pretty naïve, aren't you, furball?" Papa asked sardonically.

"_Furball_?" Luna replied, her hackles rising.

"You saw what kinds of creatures go bump in the night from my side of things. You really think teenage girls have the firepower to stand up against that level of strength?" Papa shook his head, chuckling harshly. "If you do, then you're even stupider than I first thought."

"The Dark Kingdom might be powerful, but-"

"I'm not talking about your little faction war or whatever it is you've got going," papa interrupted. "I'm talking about the normal supernatural baddies that walk the street like it's their territory. They're scary enough as it is." His grip around me tightened. "And you wanted to try to get my daughter to fight _your_ battles when she'd be gathering the attention of every hungry opportunist out there in the process?"

"It is her _destiny_. Sailor Jupiter has the responsibility to make sure the Dark Kingdom does not rise up and rule for a second time."

"_Screw_ her destiny. She's _my_ daughter." He leaned forward. "Like I said, if you even try to put her in danger, I won't hesitate to bring you down."

Luna's eyes narrowed. "…I've seen you, Mr. Dresden. I've seen what you are and what you've done. Maybe you won't hurt the ones I've sworn to protect, but that doesn't mean I trust you. You're ruthless and dangerous, and don't think that I'll take my eyes off you for one second."

"Hey!" I said, not able to take my papa's slandering anymore. I didn't care who this little furry jerk thought she was or how important she might be, _nobody_ said those kinds of things about my papa. "Papa's one of the good guys! If it wasn't for him, hundreds, thousands- no, _millions _would've died! He's saved more lives than I can count, and I'm not gonna let some freak cat degrade him like that."

"Luna's not a freak!" Usagi cried, finding it her time to enter the fray. "Sure, she might be annoying at times, and she's always bossing me around, but if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have a clue what I was doing. If not for her, the Dark Kingdom would have sucked the life energy out of a ton of people by now!"

"Usagi…" I mumbled, slightly taken aback by how vehemently she supported Luna. It was almost saddening how taken in she was.

Clapping broke me from my stalled thoughts. Papa stretched out his hands before flicking me and Usagi on the forehead. "Yes, yes," he said in exasperation, ignoring our cries of indignation. "We're all very annoyed with each other, that much is obvious. But besides all that, there's still something I want to know." He jabbed a finger at Luna. "Who are you, and why are you gathering girls to fight your battles for you?"

Luna frowned. She glanced between me and papa, obviously trying to put together a new speech to dazzle her way into our good graces. But I'd had enough of the runaround. Papa hadn't lit the cat on fire yet, so that was a good sign she wasn't innately evil, but I did_ not _enjoy having my life and path chosen for me without any say in the matter. Fighting for justice is one thing, but fighting for some ambiguous group that claimed to be on the side of good without giving me any proof just did not work for me.

Even if the practical side of me hated what I was getting into, having witnessed its fair share of terrors thanks to the supernatural side of reality, the romantic part really wanted to know just what was going on. And with papa by my side, I was going to find out!

"Look, Luna," I said, catching her off guard. "You already told me the whole spiel about how I'm the solider of lightning or wood or whatever it was. But I want to know what it _means_; just what makes me so important, and why do I have to fight some Saturday morning cartoon reject?"

Luna looked at me for a second, made a decision, and sighed. "Very well," she said reluctantly. "To put it simply, you are the reincarnation of a select breed of galactic fighter. Millennia ago, a great evil wiped out all life in this solar system, and in her last moments, our leader used her powers to not only seal away that evil, but also have the few that were with her transcend the cycle of death and rebirth and be reborn today. However, that same evil has finally broken the seal and is gathering its forces to finish what it started all those ages ago. That evil is the Dark Kingdom, led by Queen Beryl and the maleficent entity known as Metalia, which granted Beryl her immense powers."

Papa was silent, but only for a bit. "So...what you're saying is that some crazy person made a pact with an ultra-demon and destroyed the entire galaxy - which apparently was some kind of super-advanced civilization - that person is now back with the mother of all vengeance streaks, and the only ones that can stop them are girls who are barely out of puberty and have to take orders from a cat?"

Luna curled her lips. "A bit crude, but that is the general gist."

Papa looked at me. I looked at him. As one, we turned to Luna with a simultaneous, "Bullshit."

"I am telling the truth!" she said heatedly.

"You sure as hell believe you do, which concerns me greatly. But tell me, furball, what exactly can..." He looked up to the left and silently counted off his fingers. "Five teenage girls, _maybe_, do against something that's a literal galaxy buster? _Yoda_ would flee from that firepower, and he's the most badass green muppet alive."

Usagi gasped. "How did you know there were others?"

"Usagi!" Luna chided, clearly annoyed that Usagi had verified papa's assumption.

"I know my basic astronomy," papa said flatly. He counted off on his fingers again. "You already called little miss dumplings here Moon and my daughter Jupiter. That leaves at least Mercury, Venus, Mars, maybe Earth if Moon doesn't just override it, and that doesn't even bring into account the other four planets... that is, if Pluto even still counts as a planet."

I don't know why, but papa shivered at that moment. He looked around curiously but then shook his head and went back to business. No idea what that was about, but I had the distinct feeling he thought he'd inadvertently ticked someone off.

"So, you probably have about three more because odds are the others activated before my kiddo, 'cause life likes to be neat and clichéd like that. Five girls. Against an ancient evil." He slapped his hands on his knees. "This isn't a superhero movie; the good guys don't just win because they're good. The thing is... bad guys _cheat_."

Of course, papa didn't mention that he cheated too since he was practical, but I thought it'd best not to say anything that would undermine his stand. The grownups were talking now.

"Speaking of which, where does our precious little bundle of whacko, Zoe, fit into this? When he popped up, he mentioned your group by name. I'm guessing he works for big, bad, and ugly?"

"Ah, Zoicite?" Luna confirmed. "Yes, he's a general in Queen Beryl's army. Extremely loyal. He's the one that's trying to collect the rainbow crystals. The rainbow crystals are, well..." She trailed off, looking like she felt she'd said too much already. "Let's just say it'd be very bad for them to fall into the Dark Kingdom's hands, and leave it at that."

"Mystical artifacts. Genocidal dudes. Bad stuff will happen, got it." Papa glanced at me and set his jaw. "Tell me, is ol' Zoe human?"

Why would papa ask tha- oh. Oh dear. Papa was serious.

"Human? Him?" Luna scoffed. "Queen Beryl and her thuggish brutes are no more human than wild beasts. Why, even the thought that they'd be-"

"I'm serious," papa said. "Is he, or is he not, human?" His eyes were stony and flat, brooking no argument.

Luna took a step back from his expression before calming herself. She took a deep breath. "No," she said. "Zoicite and the others stopped being human the moment they accepted Metalia's powers. Any shred of humanity they once had has been completely wiped out, consumed by that monster's dark energy." She pawed at the floor. "Is that acceptable?"

"Awesome," papa said. He tapped his chin. "Now, that just leaves on the table what, exactly, _you_ are."

"Me?" Luna pointed at herself. She lifted her chin and preened proudly. "I am Ambassador Luna Felina, royal advisor to her majesty Queen Serenity, ruler of the Silver Millennium. As of this moment, I am also the caretaker and teacher to the awakened Sailor Senshi, elite combat unit of the galaxy."

"So, you're the one that's running this shindig?" he asked.

"That is correct," she stated primly.

"Well, congrats then, furball," papa said brightly. "You are being honorably discharged, and I'm taking over."

"W-what?" she sputtered.

"You heard me," papa repeated in the tone you speak to a misbehaving child with. "You're no longer in charge. I am."

"How dare you?" Luna hissed. "If you think that some no-name ruffian can just waltz in and-"

"This 'no-name ruffian' has kicked the asses of more wannabe godlings than he'd care to count, and has prevented the end of the world as we know it more than once, which is one time too many." He pointed his finger at Luna, like he was going to stab her with it. "_You_, on the other hand, are a glorified babysitter and probably have absolutely no combat experience, which makes you the _least_ qualified battle commander in existence." Papa jerked a thumb at me. "Heck, Makoto has fought off waves of baddies since she was _nine_, which makes her more qualified than you. _Not-_" He gave me the stink-eye, and I smiled nervously in response. "That that means she can go off fighting evil like a vigilante."

"I'm smarter than that, papa," I said.

"I know you are, kiddo," he smirked. His mouth formed back into a neutral line as he focused back on the other two. "Still, that means that I'm the best chance to deal with your little Dark Kingdom problem. And the first order of business is to declare that Sailor Moon and her buddies are to not make any more appearances."

"What? But that's not fair!" Usagi cried. "You can't just tell us to stop! The senshi are warriors of love and justice! We're the ones that keep Tokyo safe at night from the Dark Kingdom!"

"And I, and others like me, are the ones that keeps it safe from the _other _99% of the monsters that like to prey on the weak." He frowned. "Face it, kid, you're out of your league."

"You don't understand," Usagi said. "The senshi are necessary. Without us, who knows how many bad things the Dark Kingdom will do. Without us, they'll take over the city and then the world!"

"And I'm telling you that your little extracurricular activities are over. You are not fighting baddies, ever again." Papa's eye twitched.

"You can't tell me what to do," Usagi pouted, puffing her cheeks out. "Luna told me to lead the Sailor Senshi to victory and that's what I'm gonna do!"

"No, you're not," he growled.

"Yes, I _am!_"

"Usagi, calm down," I said, holding my hands up in a placating fashion. "Papa's only trying to do what's best. Trust me on this, he knows what he's talking about."

"No, Mako! He doesn't! He doesn't know at all! _We're_ the only ones who can fight against the youma. _We're_ the only ones who can stop Beryl and Metalia. _We're_ the only ones who-"

"I forbid you from fighting!" Papa shouted, climbing to his feet.

I slowly started backing away, feeling the torrent of raw emotion and magic swirling through him. He was at the breaking point, and I did not feel like taking the brunt of it because Usagi didn't know to keep her fool mouth shut.

Usagi jumped to her feet as well. "I'm gonna!

"I! For-bid! _It!_"

With that declaration, the tightly woven knot of magic papa had been keeping locked up exploded outward. Usagi and Luna let out shrieks of fright and surprise as the lightbulbs in the room shattered and sparks scattered from the resulting metaphysical shockwave. Outside, I could make out car alarms blaring into the afternoon air as their systems fried themselves from the inside out.

Papa panted as an aura of frustration and anger rolled off of him. Luna and Usagi were cowering on the floor, clutching at each other with whimpers and tears. They were clearly terrified at papa's unintentional display of power. Even I was a bit nervous at the pure emotion in his shout and release, and I knew that papa would never harm a hair on any of our heads.

Papa took a deep breath, held it in for a moment, and then let out a deep, resigned sigh. He fell back to the floor. He put a hand to face and rubbed at his brow. "Look," he said, his tone heavy. "You're still children. You have no idea what you're getting into. Maybe when you're older and more experienced you'll get it, but right now you're a liability to yourself and others. As of right now, you and the other senshi are grounded. You are not to go demon hunting. You are not to go looking for clues. You are not to go challenge the embodiment of evil to a duel. If any of those come up, you will run away as fast as you can and contact me. Is that understood?"

Usagi nodded shakily and hiccupped. He sighed again. "Good. Now, go home. And if I see you on the streets doing anything other than whatever it is teenage girls do, we'll have words, got it?"

Usagi wordlessly nodded again and stood up, holding Luna to her chest. She looked in my direction, gave a weak, "See ya, Mako," and quietly left the apartment.

Papa sat where he was, not saying a word. I frowned. I had some idea of what he was thinking. He hated scaring children and he hated scaring women - Usagi was both. Still, what he'd done was necessary, if a bit over the top. Usagi didn't seem to understand the heap of trouble she was in. Maybe Luna was right and the senshi _were_ needed to fight the Dark Kingdom, but there were people who did that kind of stuff for a living, and they were much better at it than magical cosplayers.

One of those people was morosely sitting in front of me. I screwed up my mouth, thinking. Getting up, I walked over to the icebox and pulled out a can of coke. I walked back over to papa, put the can in front of his face, and popped it. He jolted when the carbonation took him right in the nose. I giggled at his dopey look before turning around and scootching into his lap. He instinctively rearranged his legs to give me a more comfortable position, and then took the can from my hands and took a long sip.

I waited before speaking. "Feel better?"

"Yeah," he said. He took another sip and wrapped an arm around my waist. "Thanks, kiddo."

"No problem, papa." We sat there a while, just enjoying the other's company. I twisted in his grasp to look up at him. "Hey, papa?"

"Hmm?" he mumbled.

"What are we going to do now?"

"I don't know, kiddo. It's a lot to take in, and that's only what the furball decided to share with us."

"So you believe what she said?"

"She wasn't lying, that's for sure. All that crazy sci-fi/fantasy junk? She _believed _every word of it."

The way he stressed 'believed' made me pause. Belief was key in using magic. If you didn't believe in what you were doing, it didn't work. To have a strong sense of self was vital. If Luna really did think the world was going to be eaten by some evil baddie, we couldn't just disregard it.

"And...?" I prodded.

He tilted his head. "And what?"

"And what are you going to do about it?" I repeated.

He rolled his eyes. "Well, first I'm going to go digging for info. Without something more concrete to work off of, this whole thing is gonna get real old, real fast."

"And where are you going to find that?"

He smirked and knocked the can against my temple. "Let's just say I've got a warden that I've got some choice questions for."

I shivered at the teeth in that smile. Oh man, that warden was in for the roasting of his life.

It sucked that I couldn't witness it. I'm sure it was gonna be wicked.

* * *

For the second time in three days, I found myself in front of the inn-turned-White Council-safehouse where the Japanese regional warden resided. Honestly, I was not expecting to have to meet with Warden Arashimaru so soon, especially as we'd left each other on pretty good terms.

Then again, I also didn't expect there to be children running around in mini-skirts fighting against supernatural creatures and being led around by a talking cat.

Life was just unpredictable like that.

I'd been unable to meet Arashimaru the same day as Luna's and Usagi's visit, since he was out patrolling the area. Apparently there was some sort of magical drug trade that'd been garnering his attention. I internally grated at the idea; here there was something he should have been dealing with immediately, and instead he was chasing after other random leads.

I'd managed to get Tamako, though, and she took my message that I'd be over on Monday. Luckily, I didn't have to leave Makoto home alone, as she was over at the study session with Usagi and her friends.

I had completely forgotten that she had the whole week off thanks to a week-long Japanese school-holiday.

Stupid Japan and their different school schedule.

I was glad that Makoto could spend her free time possibly making new friends, but I was also somewhat worried that it wasn't such a smart idea, since Usagi's friends may very well be the other senshi. However, Makoto convinced me that she wouldn't be in any danger. I reluctantly agreed; I knew Luna wasn't going to cause any harm to my daughter, and I doubted the other senshi had the nerve to outright attack Makoto. Still, it didn't mean I couldn't worry.

I guess I'd just have to take out my frustrations on the semi-deserving Arashimaru.

I rapped harshly on the door. Barely a second passed before it opened, revealing Tamako with her normal, stoic expression. She granted me a small nod.

"Sir Dresden, it's a pleasure to see you again," she said. "I expect you're here to meet with Sir Arashimaru."

I couldn't bring myself to give her a smile in return. My temper was still running too hot. Instead, I gave a curt nod. "Yeah, he's here, right? I have some things to discuss with him."

She must've noticed my change in demeanor, because her eyes narrowed the tiniest bit. Still, she granted me entrance and led me to straight to Arashimaru's room. Bowing slightly, she gestured at the door. "Please, Sir Arashimaru is waiting for you inside." With that, she glided away, her slippered feet making no noise on the wooden floor.

I knocked on the door. From inside, I heard a voice telling me to come in. With permission granted, I opened the door, swept in, and witnessed the controlled chaos that was Arashimaru's lab.

It looked less like the traditional wizard's lab - with mystical items, grimoires, random objects, and magic circles - and more like the inside of a mad scientist's laboratory. Multiple beakers, Bunsen burners, measuring devices, and the like were scattered around the room with no apparent organization to them. There were several maps pinned up on the wall, some of the city and others of the surrounding country, but there were also a fair amount of hand-drawn weather maps, detailing the current patterns in the same areas.

I could make out a few devices designed to gauge weather, including an old mercury barometer, weather vane, and wind speed indicator – the latter of which was whirling away despite the fact that it was indoors. There was a tower of notebooks next to them, full to bursting with loose papers shoved haphazardly between the pages. Beside those were a few textbooks focused on meteorology.

Arashimaru was in the center of the room, focused intently on a small glass bottle the size of two fists put together. Inside, I could make out a foggy mist with small arcs of electricity racing back and forth. Before I could inspect it more, Arashimaru turned around, and a large smile crossed his face.

He raised a hand in greeting, the other lifting the pair of goggles from his eyes and settling them on his forehead. "Ah, Warden Dresden, to what do I owe a second visit from you? I thought everything was in order when you left Saturday."

I could've eased in. I could've explained my frustrations. I could've been diplomatic.

I've never been good at any of those.

"What the hell are you doing?!" I yelled.

The grin dropped off his face. "Pardon?"

"What the hell are you doing? Are you even aware of what's going on?"

He pursed his lips. "Warden Dresden, if you do not explain what you are accusing me of, I can't very well defend or explain myself with any form of adequacy," he responded, with that calm, placating tone of voice that only ever seems to piss people off more.

I growled. "I'm _talking_ about the girls that are playing superhero in _your_ jurisdiction."

A light went on in his eyes. "Ah." He removed his goggles from his head completely and gently placed them on the table next to the lightning jar. "I see. That's what you meant."

"Yeah, _that's_ what I meant," I said. "What are you thinking, letting children fight when it should be your responsibility, or, heck, _anyone_ else's? They can't be any older than middle school!"

"I would stop them if I could, Dresden," he said politely. "But it's a bit more complicated than that."

"Complicated?" I scoffed. "How could it be complicated? Find them, stop them, do something about the so-called monsters they fight. There, done! How hard could that be?"

"It's hard because I have yet to actually witness them fighting, or even meet them."

I stopped short at that. "What?"

"These so-called 'Sailor Senshi'?" he said. "They're almost like ghosts when it comes to their fights. I'm never able to find them before they finish fighting, and my attempts to track them down afterward have all failed miserably. I'm barely able to get a scent on their general area before they completely vanish from radar. The only reason I'm even aware of them is from the massive collateral damage they leave from their battles and second-hand knowledge from eye-witnesses. Speaking of which..."

He walked over to a table positioned next to the wall and scrounged around before pulling out a small magazine. He flipped it to a page in the middle before handing it to me. "Did you know that they're a bit of a sensation in this city?"

I glanced at the magazine and my eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. There, in full HD and color, were three girls in the gaudiest and girliest outfits, posing in front of a creature much like the one I had incinerated a couple days ago. A couple more photos showed them fighting what the article dubbed a 'youma', shooting off blasts of fire and blankets of mist.

'The warriors of love and justice, the Sailor Senshi!' 'Proud defenders of Azabu-Juuban!' 'Protectors of the weak, our lovable heroes!'

I looked up at Arashimaru. "You're kidding me."

He arched an eyebrow. "I only wish." He took the magazine back. "As you can tell, they're obviously well-known in this area. Not only that, but they have a bit of a following."

"So how could you not find them?" I asked, my tone harsh. "Their faces are in clear view of the camera! It shouldn't take much for anyone with half a brain and a little time to find them, or hell, recognize them on the street."

"That's mainly due to the glamour on them."

I paused. "…Glamour?"

Glamours. Basically, they were illusions, typically with a mental component as well. A good glamour could make you look like someone else. A _really_ good glamour could make you look like someone's closest loved one, and they'd _never notice the difference._

"Yes, and a rather potent one, in fact." He frowned and looked at the pictures. "Despite having their pictures plastered across every magazine and newspaper in the prefecture, and presumably even the internet, no one has been able to recognize them even though they make absolutely no effort to hide their identities. Whatever spell they're using, it's a powerful one. Because of that, I've made no progress in tracking them, through magical or mundane means."

I took a closer look, and saw for myself what he meant. One of the pictures gave me a good look at Sailor Moon's face, and even _I_ would have called myself crazy to think that it was my daughter's new friend. "Well, have you've been able to find out _anything_ about them?" I pressed.

"Some," he admitted. "As you can see, there's a total of three in the city right now - Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Mars. Moon seems to be the leader, as she tends to be the one to take these so-called 'youma' down." A small smile slipped out. "Also, I have news that there's another of these senshi out in England, going by the name of Sailor V. Apparently, she's been at it for a couple years now."

"England?" I said surprised. "How the heck is there a rogue spell-caster literally running around in the White Council's backyard?" The White Council's HQ was located near England, so to have someone blatantly fighting monsters in broad view of the not-clued-in public was more than just a slap in the face; it was a slap in the face with an iron gauntlet.

"They're having the same problems I am – a glamour prevents people from recognizing her, and all attempts at tracking fall flat. Luckily, they've managed to find counter-measures to lessen the impact of a young girl blasting baddies."

"Oh, and what's that?" I asked snarkily.

"They're touting her as a magical idol," he chuckled.

My mind's needle skipped a groove. "Wha?"

"The regional warden managed to get help from a local producer and had them publicize this Sailor V as a 'magical girl' performer, holding public performances of her stopping some evil syndicate. Every time she shows up and gets into a fight, they clean up by pretending they were shooting a live scene. The public loves it; if she ever stops fighting, she'd be a shoe-in in the entertainment industry. I've already set up similar arrangements over here with a friend."

Grinding the transmission, I attempted to get my thoughts back on track. Stay focused, Harry. It didn't matter how stupid or inane the situation was becoming; I had to get my displeasure across to this guy. I gritted me teeth, refusing to back down. I wasn't going to take these excuses. There was no reason that Arashimaru could just allow Usagi and the others to fight without exploiting any way possible to stop them.

It went double if this kind of thing had been going on for two whole years in London and several months here in Japan.

"What about the White Council, then?" I said, my tone getting heated once more. "I'm pretty sure they wouldn't just allow children to flaunt their powers in front of the vanilla mortals. Didn't you ask them for help in the matter?"

"I did, in fact," he said. "When I spoke to them, they told me to 'handle it myself.'"

Figures. Magical government or not, the White Council was still a bureaucracy, and that meant being no help at all while still demanding that its minions drop everything if needed.

Arashimaru gave me a wry look. "In case you might have forgotten, we are currently at war with the Red Court. Apparently a bunch of teenagers fighting random monsters is a lower priority than making sure the Reds don't wipe us out."

I winced at that. Though not _really_ my fault, I was partially responsible for prematurely kicking off a skirmish between the White Council and Red Court vampires when I incinerated an entire mansion of them during my early years in Chicago. The Reds had been planning to wage a war against the White Council for a long time; I just sorta accelerated the process.

Even so, the war was not going well. We had lost a lot of good comrades because of it, and promoted a lot of greenhorns to fill in the gaps left behind by the older ones' deaths. Heck, if it wasn't for the war, there was no way I'd be a warden right now, given all the red in my ledger.

I sighed mentally. There really was no reason for me to be so aggressive towards Arashimaru. It was obvious he'd been doing all he could, and me barging in and accusing him of failing at his job wasn't helping him in the least. I had forced my morals and ideals on the man, and that was wrong.

I relaxed my shoulders and scratched the back of my neck. "Sorry, Arashimaru, I didn't mean to be so rough. It just really bothered me that there are children fighting out there when there could be more experienced people doing it for them."

Arashimaru smiled gently. "Don't worry about, Dresden. I can understand your feelings on the matter. I don't relish the idea of young people fighting when they do not have to, either. That belief has only become stronger with all the good friends I have met and lost in the past few years."

"Yeah," I said. "Sorry anyway."

"Once again, pay it no heed. However, if you're feeling that apologetic, maybe you can help me on something."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"Well, since you seem so adamant about stopping these girls, do you have any information you can share? Anything would be helpful, and the more I know, the easier it'll be to find these kids and get them to stop."

I hesitated. My daughter was involved, now, and I didn't want Usagi or the other two resident senshi to get in trouble with the White Council, not if I could stop them without outing them. Even if they weren't technically breaking any of the seven laws, they were still skirting pretty close to the unofficial ones. Using magic in a public venue was firmly looked down upon, and the constant collateral damage they were causing (as mentioned by Arashimaru and several points in the magazine article) did not endear them to normal mortal officials. I had enough trouble back in Chicago with all the random fires I started in the line of duty, and I had Murphy on my side. Their hearts may have been in the right place, but these girls were delinquents at best in the eyes of both the police and the Council.

Also, as much as I didn't want to think on it, this was extremely similar to the start of darkness for most warlocks. Most warlocks were just ignorant kids who didn't have anyone to explain their powers to them, used them in the wrong way once to break a law, and then fell ass over teakettle down the slippery slope. With how reckless the girls were, it was only a matter of time before an innocent bystander got caught in the crossfire.

Even worse than that, Luna would definitely be put to the blade should she be discovered. Most supernatural creatures weren't heavily hunted down, because it was simply in their nature to act the way they did; they didn't have free will the way humans or other creatures with souls did. Luna, while not human, most certainly had a soul considering the soul gaze I'd shared with her.

She _knew_ what was she was doing, and she _believed_ it was the right thing to do.

Those two things combined were the road paved with good intentions that led to hell. I'm sure the council would make an exception and use the silver sword on her, human or not.

Cautiously, I gave a censored version of the events that'd happened Saturday afternoon. I mentioned Zoicite attacking the young man, how I'd chased him down, and the demon he'd sicced on me. I _didn't_ mention Luna, that my daughter had helped the man who'd been turned into a youma, or that she'd transformed into another senshi.

Arashimaru seemed particularly interested in the crystals Zoicite had attacked the man for, and the fact that he appeared to be an enemy of the senshi. I theorized that the crystals must be part of some ritual, which probably wasn't too far from the truth given what little Luna had told me about them.

"Zoicite seems like my best bet for finding out more about these senshi and the animosity between the two groups," I said. "So I figured I'd try to follow up on the matter, see if I can stop him from trying it again."

"There's no need for that," Arashimaru said politely. "I thank you for the offer of assistance, but this is my appointed territory, and I only find it appropriate to take care of the matter myself."

"Are you sure?" I prodded. "Because, really, I have no problem staying to help out. I have to make sure my daughter doesn't run into this whacko again." For multiple reasons.

He shook his head. "No, I have to respectfully decline. There's no need for you to stay any longer than you'd originally planned. You have your own region to look after, after all. I assure you, your daughter will be safe here. On my word."

"If you're sure..." I trailed off.

"Dresden," he said firmly, locking eyes with me. I glanced down before the pulling of the soul gaze started. Yikes. "I'm sure."

"Fine, if you say so." I looked around the room aimlessly. "I suppose if that's all that can be done, I'll be going."

"I'll have Tamako escort you to the entrance," he said. "Goodbye, Warden Dresden."

I exited the room and was shortly brought to the front door by Tamako. She wished me goodbye, and I left.

From the curt way Arashimaru had ended the conversation, I had the feeling that he knew I hadn't told him everything. I wasn't exactly the best liar, something that's gotten me in trouble more than a few times, and it was an unfortunate trait I'd transferred over to Makoto. Hopefully he wouldn't feel the need to interrogate her, though I didn't see him as the type of person who would.

I sighed deeply and made my way out of the front yard and back to the apartment. Hopefully this whole excursion wouldn't come back to bite me in the ass later on.

Lord knows it wouldn't be the first time.

Still, I think it was time to do some more experimentation on that pen of Makoto's. I had the feeling that it would reveal more about the situation than Luna's lackluster lecture.

Even if it did feel like I was staring into the face of madness.

* * *

A/N (Irritus): Next chapter over! Ohmygosh, look! They settled their differences by talking! No one died! No one exploded! No one got a tiara lodged up their nose! Yay! Also, wow, I've got a lot of bloodthirsty reviewers. Fun times for you guys, huh? In any case, we've finally got Harry/Makoto finding out more about just what they've gotten into, and also some potential plot holes have been filled from the mixture of these two series. Huzzah! Till next time, people.

Also, the fuku must go, by order of papa Harry. With fire, if possible.

A/N (Raithe): Alternative titles for this chapter:

-Of 'Demon' Cats and Angry Dresdens

-The Chapter with All the Dialogue

-Dude, Where's My Clichéd Crossover Fight Scene?

Yeah, when a plotline requires two good people to assume that the other is evil, the whole 'Soul Gaze' thing is kind of a deal-breaker.

This was originally going to be two scenes longer (With even more dialogue!), but Irritus apparently thought that 40 pages was too long and wanted to keep the chapters at a 'reasonable length' or something, so they've been moved into the next one.


End file.
